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America's  3ftace 
problems; 


Jpjmerua's  J^ace 


ADDRESSES  AT  THE  ANNUAL 
MEETING  OF  THE  AMERICAN 
ACADEMY  OF  POLITICAL  AND  SO- 
CIAL SCIENCE,  PHILADELPHIA,  APRIL 
TWELFTH  AND  THIRTEENTH,  MCMI 


NEW   YORK 
PUBLISHED     FOR     THE     AMERI- 
CAN    ACADEMY     OF     POLITICAL 
AND     SOCIAL     SCIENCE,     BY 
McCLURE,  PHILLIPS  &  CO. 

MCMI  /Z°**0TaHc4*0 


^CHAP^^ 


CONTENTS 

PAGB 

PART  I:  THE  RACES  OF  THE  PACIFIC. 
C.THE  NATIVES  OF  HAWAII:  A 
STUDY  OF  POLYNESIAN  CHARM. 
TITUS     MUNSON     COAN,     A.M.,     M.D., 

NEW   YORK   CITY 9 

C.THE  RACES  OF  THE  PHILIPPINES: 
THE  TAGALS.  REV.  CHARLES  C. 
PIERCE,  D.D.,  CHAPLAIN  U.  S.  ARMY.  21 
CTHE  SEMI-CIVILIZED  TRIBES  OF 
THE  PHILIPPINE  ISLANDS.  REV. 
OLIVER  C.  MILLER,  A.M.,  D.D.,  CHAP- 
LAIN  U.   S.   ARMY 43 

PART  II:  THE  CAUSES  OF  RACE  SU- 
PERIORITY. EDWARD  A.  ROSS,  PH.D., 
UNIVERSITY   OF  NEBRASKA.         .        .     67 

PART  III:  THE  RACE  PROBLEM  AT 
THE   SOUTH. 

{[INTRODUCTORY  REMARKS  BY  COL- 
ONEL HILARY  A.  HERBERT,  EX-SEC- 
RETARY OF  THE  NAVY,  WASHING- 
TON,  D.   C 95 


iPAGB 

C.THE  RELATION  OF  THE  WHITES  TO 
THE  NEGROES.  PRESIDENT  GEORGE 
T.  WINSTON,  LL.D.,  NORTH  CAROLINA 
COLLEGE  OF  AGRICULTURE  AND  ME- 
CHANIC ARTS,  RALEIGH,  N.  C.  .  .  105 
CTHE  RELATION  OF  THE  NEGROES 
TO  THE  WHITES  IN  THE  SOUTH. 
PROFESSOR  W.  E.  BURGHARDT  DU 
BOIS,    PH.D.,    ATLANTA    UNIVERSITY.  121 

PART  IV:  THE  RACES  OF  THE  WEST 
INDIES. 

COUR  RELATION  TO  THE  PEOPLE 
OF  CUBA  AND  PORTO  RICO.  HON. 
ORVILLE  H.  PLATT,  UNITED  STATES 
SENATOR  FROM   CONNECTICUT.  .  145 

CTHE     SPANISH      POPULATION      OF 
CUBA    AND    PORTO    RICO.      CHARLES 
M.  PEPPER,  ESO.,  WASHINGTON,  D.  C.  163 
CREPORT    OF  "THE    ACADEMY    COM- 
MITTEE  ON   MEETINGS.  .        .        .181 


PART  I :  THE  RACES 
OF     THE     PACIFIC 


(5) 


THE  NATIVES  OF  HAWAII:  A  STUDY 
OF  POLYNESIAN  CHARM.  BY  TITUS 
MUNSON    COAN,   A.M.,   M.D.,   NEW    YORK 


(7) 


JULY  1901 

ANNALS 


OF  THE 


AMERICAN  ACADEMY 

OF 

POLITICAL  AND  SOCIAL  SCIENCE 


THE  NATIVES  OF  HAWAII :    A  STUDY  OF 
POLYNESIAN  CHARM. 

By  Titus  Munson  Coan,  A.  M.,  M.  D., 

Of  New  York. 

The  eastern  or  brown  Polynesian  race,  the  Savaioris  as 
they  have  been  called,  to  distinguish  them  from  other 
Oceanic  races,  have  very  definite  characteristics,  physical 
and  mental.  They  are  most  nearly  related  to  the  Cambojan 
group,  "  their  true  affinities  being  with  the  Caucasians  of 
Indo-China"  (Keane).  They  are  in  noway,  however  dis- 
tantly, related  to  the  negro.  Their  habitat  is  in  the  southern 
and  eastern  Pacific  Ocean,  where  they  occupy  Samoa,  Tahiti, 
Tonga,  the  Marquesas,  Tuamotu,  Tokelau,  Ellice,  Rotuma, 
New  Zealand,  the  eastern  Fijis,  Tarawa,  Manega,  Phoenix 
and  Lagoon  Islands,  Easter  Island,  and  in  the  north  Pacific 
the  Hawaiian  group. 

In  all  these  islands  and  groups,  however  widely  separated 
geographically,  we  find  a  people  that  is  essentially  one  in 
blood,  language,  usages,  traditions  and  religion.  They  rank 
high  among  races.  Keane  says:  "  They  are  one  of  the 
finest  races  of  mankind,  Caucasian  in  all  essentials;  distin- 
guished by  their  symmetrical  proportion,  tall  stature,  aver- 

(9) 


io  Annai^s  of  the  American  Academy 

aging  five  feet  ten  inches,  and  handsome  features.  Cook 
gives  the  palm  to  the  Marquesas  islanders,  '  who  for  fine 
shape  and  regular  features  surpass  all  other  natives.'  " 
Lord  George  Campbell  remarks:  "There  are  no  people  in 
the  world  who  strike  one  at  first  so  much  as  these  Friendly 
Islanders  [Tongans].  Their  clear,  light  copper-brown  col- 
ored skins,  yellow  and  curly  hair,  good-humored  and  hand- 
some faces, — their  tout  ensemble  formed  a  novel  and  splendid 
picture  of  the  genus  homo;  and  as  far  as  physique  and  appear- 
ance go  they  gave  one  certainly  an  impression  of  being  a 
superior  race  to  ours. ' '  The  Savaioris  are  similarly  described 
by  most  of  the  leading  observers.  They  are  also  among  the 
kindest,  most  gentle-mannered  and  generous  people  in  the 
world,  and  but  for  the  oppressions  of  their  priests  and  kings 
would  have  been  the  happiest. 

What  are  the  causes  of  this  exceptional  development? 
Under  what  conditions,  material  and  psychical,  has  that 
development  taken  place?  Only  the  briefest  answer  can  be 
attempted  here,  and  that  only  for  one  typical  group,  the 
Hawaiian.  Some  of  the  main  conditions  of  this  develop- 
ment were  the  following: 

i.  Geography,  orography, — The  largest  island,  Hawaii, 
has  an  area  of  four  thousand  square  miles;  the  group 
stretches  four  hundred  miles  from  northwest  to  southeast, 
and  all  the  principal  islands  had  rival  kings.  Frequent 
wars,  naval  excursions  and  invasions  were  the  result.  The 
islands  are  all  mountainous,  offering  secure  fastnesses  to  the 
contending  factions,  and  the  ancient  Hawaiians  developed 
a  good  fighting  physique. 

2.  Climate. — The  Hawaiian  climate  is  the  most  equable 
tropical  climate  in  the  world.  It  is  never,  as  in  other 
tropical  islands,  excessively  hot.  The  usual  range  of  tem- 
perature is  from  700  to  8o°  Fah. ;  at  the  sea  level  it  never 
falls  below  550  Fah.,  nor  does  it  ever  exceed  900.  Hurri- 
canes and  typhoons  are  absolutely  unknown.  This  uniform- 
ity and  this  immunity  are  due  to  an  ocean  current  from  the 


The  Natives  of  Hawaii  ii 

north,  which  tempers  the  winds  and  laves  the  island  coasts 
in  an  ever-flowing  stream  at  a  temperature  of  about  700. 

The  innocent  Hawaiian  climate  favored  the  habit  of  outdoor 
life,  which  was  almost  universal,  the  native  huts  being  used 
only  for  sleeping  places  and  for  protection  from  the  rain.  It 
also  developed  aquatic  and  seagoing  habits.  The  nearness 
of  the  islands  to  each  other,  the  gentle  winds,  the  sea, 
never  violently  tempestuous,  though  often  rough,  these  made 
the  natives  the  most  powerful  and  daring  swimmers  in  the 
world,  trained  them  in  fishing  and  seagoing,  and  tempted 
them  away  on  long  ocean  voyages — as  far  as  to  the  Society 
Islands,  2,000  miles  to  the  southward.  In  fishing,  too,  they 
became  great  experts. 

3.  The  soil  was  in  large  part  fertile.  This,  with  the  favoring 
climate,  made  but  a  few  weeks'  labor  in  the  year  necessary. 
The  natives  did  not  exert  themselves  toilsomely  in  agricul- 
ture. Their  principal  food  was  the  root  of  the  taro;  this 
being  nearly  all  starch,  it  produced  great  obesity,  especially 
in  the  chiefs,  who,  having  much  to  eat  and  not  much  to  do, 
grew  excessively  fat. 

4.  Negative  Conditions. — The  total  absence  of  wild  beasts 
and  noxious  vermin,  as  well  as  of  destructive  tempests  and 
temperatures,  was  favorable  to  the  psychical  development  and 
the  genial  content  of  the  islanders.  Nature  had  no  ter- 
rors for  them;  even  the  great  volcanic  eruptions  of  Mauna 
L,oa  and  Kilauea,  exceeding  in  magnitude  all  others  on 
record,  were  very  seldom  destructive  of  human  life;  nor  did 
the  violent  earthquakes  do  more  than  jostle  the  grass  cot- 
tages of  the  dwellers  in  this  lotos  land. 

The  Hawaiians  thus  enjoyed,  in  the  main,  very  peaceable 
conditions  of  existence.  They  were  indeed  harassed  by  the 
tabu  and  by  the  wars  of  their  chieftains;  but  the  struggle 
for  life,  as  known  in  more  densely  populated  countries,  was 
not  known  to  them.  They  found  time  for  some  forms  of 
culture.  They  had  no  plastic  art;  metals  were  unknown, 
and  they  never  attained  more  than  a  limited  skill  in  mechani- 


12  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

cal  arts:  but  in  poetry  there  was  an  interesting  development, 
in  the  form  of  sonorous  chants  or  meles  couched  in  a  peculiar 
poetic  diction;  in  these  were  embodied  the  exploits  and  the 
lives  of  their  heroes,  as  well  as  their  traditions,  mythol- 
ogy, and  even  their  astronomical,  botanical  and  animal 
lore. 

They  had  a  very  acute  eye  for  nature.  Their  language  is 
full  of  terms  for  all  visible  things  and  doings;  but  it  was 
little  capable  of  expressing  general  conceptions,  such  as  time, 
goodness,  temperance,  virtue;  thus  there  were  many  syn- 
onyms for  rain  and  sunlight,  calm  and  storm,  but  no  word  for 
weather.  This  deficiency  caused  much  trouble  to  the  mis- 
sionaries in  the  task  of  translating  the  Scriptures  into  the 
native  tongue.  The  things  most  valued  by  the  natives  in 
old  times  were  the  sticks  of  Oregon  pine,  which  at  long 
intervals  came  drifting  to  the  islands  from  the  northwest 
coast,  and  were  eagerly  seized  to  be  fashioned  into  war 
canoes.  It  is  said  that  when  the  translator  came  to  the  pas- 
sage in  the  Epistles,  reading:  ' '  Add  to  your  faith  knowledge, 
and  to  your  knowledge  temperance,  and  to  your  temperance 
virtue,"  he  appealed  to  his  native  assistant  for  the  Hawaiian 
word  for  virtue,  which  he  described  as  the  most  desirable  of 
all  possessions.  The  native  was  puzzled;  neither  the  con- 
ception of  virtue,  as  we  understand  it,  nor  any  correspond- 
ing word,  existed  in  Hawaiian;  but  at  last  he  said:  "  I 
understand  )rou  now,"  and  gave  the  missionary  a  word  which 
made  the  passage  read:  "  Add  to  your  faith  knowledge,  and 
to  knowledge  temperance,  and  to  temperance  a  stick  of 
Oregon  pine." 

Here  then  we  have  a  community  under  most  favoring 
conditions  for  happiness,  a  good  climate  and  soil,  an  abound- 
ing sea,  and  freedom  from  the  terrors  of  nature.  Supported 
by  a  few  days'  labor  in  the  month,  the  natives  had  leisure  to 
cultivate  poetry,  dancing,  games,  and  the  social  pleasures, 
together  with  the  virtues  of  kindness,  courtesy,  and  gener- 
osity.    "The  social  and  family  affections,"  says  Fornander, 


Thk  Nativks  of  Hawaii  13 

"were  as  strong  iu  the  old  Hawaiians  as  in  any  modern 
people,  Christian  or  pagan. ' '  They  divided  their  possessions 
with  their  friends,  and  took  pleasure  in  doing  it.  L,azy  and 
greedy  persons  were  not  wholly  unknown  among  them  ; 
but  they  had  their  punishment — they  were  stigmatized  by 
such  terms  as  hoapili  mea  at,  a  friend  for  the  sake  of  a  dinner. 

Briefly,  here  were  a  happy  people.  And  why  ?  Because 
they  were  exempt  from  the  regime  of  competition — there 
was  food  for  all;  in  time  of  peace  at  least  there  was  no  strug- 
gle for  life.  But  why,  again,  was  this  ?  why  this  exemption 
from  the  usual  fate  of  man  ? 

The  usual  answer  is  that  which  we  may  seem  to  have  given 
already — the  fertile  soil,  the  genial  climate,  the  abounding 
sea,  the  entire  absence  of  noxious  natural  forces.  But 
this,  like  other  usual  answers,  explains  nothing;  it  is  no 
answer  at  all.  In  countries  like  Java,  Ceylon,  and  large 
parts  of  India  and  China  we  find  natural  conditions  not 
indeed  absolutely  so  favorable  as  these,  yet  nearly  so ;  but 
these  are  the  very  countries  that  have  suffered  terribly  from 
overcrowding  and  famine.  In  Hawaii  the  conditions  are 
those  which  elsewhere  have  produced  over-population,  and 
its  resulting  degradation ;  yet  in  Hawaii  there  was  no 
over-population;  although  they  had  their  hard  times  they 
had  no  destructive  famines.  During  the  nineteen  years  of 
my  residence  there,  there  were  sometimes  shortages  in  the 
taro  and  sweet  potato  crops  ;  the  natives  went  into  the 
woods,  and  dug  up  a  kind  of  fern  that  had  a  succulent, 
starchy  root,  and  with  this  and  a  little  fish  they  eked  out 
an  existence;  but  destructive  famines  are  not  in  their  record. 

What  then  is  the  explanation  of  the  Polynesian  immunity 
from  the  struggle  for  life,  and  from  the  misery  and  debase- 
ment that  accompany  it?  Why  were  not  these  islands 
crowded,  like  countries  under  the  old  civilizations,  with  mil- 
lions of  people  whose  entire  energies  are  spent  in  the  effort 
to  earn,  not  a  living,  but  half  a  living  or  less? 

The  data  for  the  answer  have  long  been  before  the  student, 


14  Annai^s  of  the  American  Academy 

yet  the  true  answer  as  I  think  has  not  yet  been  given.  The 
ancient  Hawaiian's  exemption  from  the  struggle  for  life, 
and  the  effect  of  this  exemption  on  his  character,  were  not  due 
to  climate,  or  to  soil,  or  to  any  physical  conditions  ;  none  of 
these  things  gave  the  Samoan,  the  Tahitian,  the  Tongan, 
Hawaiian,  his  joyous  temperament,  his  winning  manners,  his 
generous  heart. 

Throughout  Polynesia  the  struggle  for  life  was  evaded  by 
restricting  the  ?iatural  increase  of  population.  By  this  restric- 
tion the  population  was  kept  down  to  the  means  of  comfort- 
able subsistence  ;  there  was  food  enough  for  all ;  the  com- 
munity lived  under  no  economic  stress  ;  and  in  consequence  it 
attained,  as  we  have  seen,  this  remarkable  development  of 
genial  and  generous  traits  and  of  material  happiness. 

Now  this  has  a  direct  illustrative  bearing,  as  it  seems  to 
me,  on  the  greatest  of  social  problems — the  lessening  of 
human  suffering,  the  augmentation  of  human  happiness. 
No  sane  thinker  would  advocate  a  resort  to  the  barbarous 
and  wasteful  infanticide  of  the  Polynesians;  but  in  all  over- 
populated  communities  to-day,  and  throughout  the  world 
in  the  not  distant  future,  the  great  question  must  be  this: 
How  to  limit  the  mere  quantity,  and  how  to  improve  the 
quality  of  the  population. 

To  some  this  problem  seems  to  lack  actuality,  as  long  as 
any  corner  of  the  world  remains  uncrowded;  and  emigra- 
tion is  proposed  as  a  cure.  But,  in  the  first  place,  emigra- 
tion on  a  sweeping  scale  is  an  impossibility.  Imagine  the 
population  of  a  great  city  being  called  upon  to  emigrate; 
where  are  the  means  to  come  from  ?  What  would  become 
of  the  people  if  deported  in  masses  ?  Few  of  them  could 
attach  themselves  to  the  soil.  In  a  word,  the  relief  of 
emigration  is  not  feasible  except  on  a  limited  scale;  for  more 
reasons  than  one,  it  is  impossible  in  a  majority  of  cases. 
But  suppose  emigration  were  possible.  How  long  would 
the  relief  thus  given  endure  ?  Only  for  a  few  years.  As 
commonly  after  wars  and  famines,  the  population   would 


The;  Natives  of  Hawaii  15 

spring  tip  more  rapidly  than  before,  and  the  gap  would  soon 
be  filled.  Neither  in  the  old  world  nor  the  new  has  the 
poverty  of  crowded  cities  ever  been  cured  by  emigration. 

Now  consider  other  schemes  of  alleviating  misery,  poverty, 
crime;  put  any  other  theory  of  reform  to  the  test,  and  you  meet 
the  same  difficulty.  Some  theorists  regard  a  better  education 
as  a  cure-all;  some  would  seek  relief  in  improved  legislation, 
others  in  a  better  knowledge  of  the  laws  of  health;  others  in 
finding  employment  for  the  poor,  in  wisely  directed  chari- 
ties; others  say  in  morals,  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount;  others 
in  religion,  culture,  philosophy.  All  of  these  are  good  and 
desirable,  but  none  of  them  touch  the  essential  point;  none 
would  prevent  the  overcrowding  of  the  poorer  population. 
Suppose  any  of  these  reforms  actually  carried  out.  Would 
any  of  them,  would  all  of  them  together,  materially  check 
the  multiplication  of  the  unfit  ?  The  eternal  law  of  Malthus 
survives;  its  cruel  action  is  little  hindered  by  any  of  the 
popular  philanthropies.  They  have  been  ineffectual  in  the 
past,  they  will  be  found  ineffectual  in  the  future.  The 
only  effective  relief  of  human  suffering  will  be  found  in 
checking  the  multiplication  of  the  unfit— in  the  intelligent 
limiting  of  mere  numbers,  and  the  consequent  improve- 
ment of  quality.  It  is  the  most  difficult  of  reforms,  because 
both  State,  Church,  and  popular  opinion  (especially  among 
men),  are  against  it,  yet  it  is  a  problem  that  grows  in  im- 
portance with  each  new  generation.  The  restriction  of 
population  in  France,  while  it  is  disadvantageous  as  long  as 
a  nation's  virtue  is  measured  by  the  size  of  its  armies,  is  a 
step  in  the  right  way. 

The  reform  that  is  most  needed  in  the  world  is  one 
of  a  distant  future;  it  is  to  look  for  quality,  not  mere 
quantity  of  life,  and  to  put  humane  and  scientific  checks 
upon  over-population.  Only  in  this  way  will  the  cruel 
struggle  for  existence  ever  be  lessened;  only  thus  will  future 
generations  suppress  poverty,  disease  and  crime,  the  vicious 
circle  which  is  the  despair  of  civilization. 


16  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

At  the  conclusion  of  Dr.  Coan's  address  the  following  col- 
loquy took  place  between  him  and  persons  in  the  audience: 

Dr.  Martin:  Has  that  restriction  of  population  to  the 
means  of  subsistence  in  the  islands  been  continued  ? 

Dr.  Coan:  No.  Since  the  islands  have  passed  under 
modern  civilization,  the  condition  which  I  mentioned  no 
longer  exists.  For  other  reasons  the  native  population  is 
not  increasing,  but  there  is  no  longer  that  artificial  restric- 
tion. Indeed,  the  native  government  of  no  long  time  ago 
encouraged  the  raising  of  large  families. 

Mr.  McGibboney:  I  have  a  friend  who  spent  a  number 
of  years  in  Hawaii,  who  says  they  not  only  have  no  name 
for  sexual  virtue,  but  none  of  the  principles  of  virtue.  Is 
that  true  ? 

Dr.  Coan:  Technically  that  would  be  true.  That  is  to  say, 
the  Polynesian  idea  of  virtue  is  different  from  ours.  Some 
one  has  said  that  virtue  in  Polynesia  was  regarded  as  an 
elegant  accomplishment,  but  not  as  a  necessity. 

Mr.  McGibboney:  Did  that  circumstance  cause  the 
decrease  in  population  since  the  arrival  of  the  whites  ? 

Dr.  Coan:  I  would  not  say  that  was  the  cause;  it  was 
due,  as  Darwin  has  pointed  out,  to  infertility  resulting  from 
changed  conditions  of  living.  But  the  point  that  Mr.  Darwin 
inquired  about  was  regarding  the  prevalence  of  infanticide, 
and  whether  male  or  female  children  were  more  frequently 
sacrificed. 

Mr.  Croxton:  I  would  like  to  ask  if  the  present  decrease, 
or  lack  of  increase  of  population,  is  not  partly  chargeable  to 
their  having  put  on  clothing  ? 

Dr.  Coan:  Undoubtedly;  that  was  one  of  their  changed 
conditions  of  living.  The  mischief  came  about  in  two  ways. 
The  docile  natives  were  delighted  with  the  idea  of  wear- 
ing clothes,  and  nothing  gave  them  more  pleasure  than  the 
bright-colored  calico  prints;  these  would  not  wash,  so  they 
would  throw  them  off  when  the  rain  came  down,  and  run  into 
the  church  half-naked,  or  more  than  half,  and  nobody  thought 


Thk  Natives  of  Hawaii  17 

anything  of  it.  But  they  wore  their  clothes  quite  irregu- 
larly; their  skins  became  tender,  and,  they  were  constantly 
catching  cold.  In  my  father's  great  church  there  was  often 
such  a  tempest  of  coughing  and  sneezing  that  ycu  could 
hardly  hear  his  strong  voice.  Another  vice  of  the  clcthes- 
wearing  habit  was  that  the  natives  would  not  take  off  their 
garments  when  they  got  wet,  and  illness  resulted  from 
that  cause.  Epidemics  of  small-pox,  measles,  influenza, 
decimated  the  people.  Pax  vobiscum,  said  the  priest  to  the 
native;  pox  vobiscum,  said  the  sailor  and  trader.  Yet  these 
diseases  were  not  the  essentially  destructive  agencies  ;  they 
are  not  now  more  prevalent  there  than  elsewhere,  and  the 
climate  is  exceptionally  healthy.  The  passing  away  of  the 
Hawaiians  and  of  the  other  Polynesians  was  inevitable  from 
the  moment  that  the  first  European  visitor  stepped  under  the 
coconut  groves.  The  island  character,  with  its  faults,  its 
follies,  and  its  charms,  is  disappearing  under  the  total  regime 
of  the  white  man.  Not  until  the  world  shall  learn  how  to 
limit  the  quantity  and  how  to  improve  the  quality  of  races 
will  future  ages  see  any  renewal  of  such  idyllic  life  and 
charm  as  that  of  the  ancient  Polynesian. 


THE  RACES  OF  THE  PHILIPPINES: 
THE  TAGALS.  BY  REV.  CHARLES  C. 
PIERCE,  D.D.,  CHAPLAIN   U.  S.  ARMY 


(19) 


THE  RACES  OF  THE   PHILIPPINES— THE 
TAGALS. 

By  Rev.  Charles  C.  Pierce,  D.  D., 

Chaplain  U.  S.  Army. 

The  program  for  this  session  is  unusually  accurate  in  com- 
parison with  customary  announcements,  in  that  it  refers  to 
"  The  Races  of  the  Philippines  "  rather  than  to  "The  Fili- 
pinos." The  word  "  Filipino  "  is  a  misnomer  unless  it  is 
used  in  the  sense  prevalent  in  Manila.  Strictly  speaking,  a 
Filipino  is  one  born  in  the  Philippine  Islands,  regardless  of 
parentage.  The  word  is  not  definitive  of  race  or  nationality. 
In  accurate  use  it  merely  marks  the  place  of  birth. 

In  the  same  way  it  is  inaccurate  to  refer  to  the  "  Filipino 
people,'"  as  has  so  often  been  done,  with  a  display  of  vocal 
pyrotechnics,  in  the  campaign  against  the  American  occu- 
pancy of  the  islands.  When  we  speak  of  a  "people,"  there 
is  involved  in  the  term  some  idea  of  political  cohesion  or 
national  fusion.  Such  a  condition  may  be  developed  during 
future  decades  if  the  paternal  government  shall  foster  the 
idea,  but  at  the  present  time  there  is  such  a  heterogeneous 
array  of  tribes,  about  eighty  in  all,  that  a  "  Filipino  people  ' ' 
cannot  be  said  to  exist. 

"  The  Races  of  the  Philippines  "  is,  then,  a  much  more 
fitting  denomination  of  the  inhabitants  of  our  far-off  posses- 
sions, and  in  the  debates  upon  the  wisdom  of  annexation 
with  which  our  people  will  amuse  themselves  for  months  to 
come,  it  were  well  to  have  this  distinction  between  a  people 
and  an  aggregation  of  races  kept  constantly  in  mind.  For, 
given  "  a  people,"  we  are  well  on  the  road  toward  a  discus- 
sion of  the  question  of  self-government;  but,  as  in  the 
present  case,  where  the  premise  is  unable  to  state  the  exist- 
ence of  "a  people,"  the  argument  for  popular  sovereignty 
cannot  logically  proceed. 

(21) 


22  Annai,s  op  the  American  Academy 

There  is  a  Tagal  people,  and  it  is  of  the  Tagals  that  I  am 
asked  to  speak,  as  one  of  the  races  of  the  Philippines;  a 
people  among  whom  I  have  lived  for  two  and  a  half  years. 

I  do  not  remember  having  heard  of  any  discussion  of  the 
desirability  of  granting  independence  to  the  Tagal  people. 
So  far  as  I  have  noted  the  alleged  argument,  it  has  been 
practically  one  in  behalf  of  the  propriety  of  giving  the 
Tagals  the  right  to  govern  all  the  tribes  in  the  archipelago. 

In  every  discussion,  the  diversity  of  tribes  and  dialects 
must  be  borne  in  mind,  as  well  as  intertribal  prejudices  and 
animosities. 

So  wide  is  the  gap  between  the  Tagals  and  the  Macabebes, 
for  instance,  as  to  make  the  hatred  hereditary,  and  our 
government,  in  using  the  latter  as  scouts,  has  but  adopted  a 
rule  of  warfare  which  racial  antipathies  have  made  advan- 
tageous and  by  which  Spain  had  formerly  profited. 

One  of  our  house-boys  at  the  headquarters  house  of  the 
Fourteenth  Infantry,  who  belonged  to  another  tribe, 
accounted  it  a  gross  insult  to  be  mistaken  for  a  Tagal. 
Between  the  Visayans  and  the  Tagals  no  love  is  lost. 

The  Igorrotes,  those  mountaineer  neighbors  of  the  Tagals 
in  Luzon,  were  so  little  influenced  by  the  glimmer  of  Aguin- 
aldo's  dictatorship  that  they  steadily  refused  to  make  com- 
mon cause  with  him.  When  found,  with  their  bows  and 
arrows,  facing  American  troops  at  the  beginning  of  hostili- 
ties, they  declared  that  this  alleged  Washington  (?)  had 
deceived  them;  having  invited  them  down  to  a  feast,  only 
that  they  might  encounter  American  bullets  and  so  commit 
and  entangle  themselves  as  to  be  drawn  into  battle.  The  ruse 
failed  and  the  breach  between  Tagal  and  Igorrote  widened. 

The  Tagal  is  not  even  the  original  possessor  of  the  land. 
He  is  a  Malay  or  of  Malay  descent;  an  alien.  This  con- 
sideration is  also  important,  as  it  deprives  him  of  the  right 
to  the  sympathy  sought  in  his  behalf  by  those  who  have 
never  seen  him,  on  the  ground  that  our  government  of  the 
archipelago  robs  him  of  his  political  birthright. 


The  Races  of  The  Philippines  23 

The  Tagal  tribe  is  not  aboriginal.  The  first  known  inhab- 
itants were  the  Aetas  or  Negritos;  a  race  of  small  stature, 
but  otherwise  much  resembling  the  African  negro.  And  the 
present  tribes  are  the  result  of  Malay  incursions  and  prob- 
ably amalgamation  between  the  native  and  the  immigrant. 

If  sympathy  is  to  be  shown  on  the  ground  of  original  claim 
to  territory,  it  should  be  given  to  the  Negritos,  who  still  may 
be  found,  with  their  nomadic  habits,  or  serving  as  menials 
in  Tagal  families. 

The  fact  that  the  Tagals  were  intruders,  or  the  product  of 
such  intrusion,  may  deprive  them  of  the  right  to  some 
measure  of  sympathy  heretofore  accorded  them  in  certain 
quarters,  and  yet  their  appearance  on  Philippine  soil  was 
doubtless  one  of  the  first  steps  leading  to  ultimate  civiliza- 
tion; the  Spanish  conquest  was  another;  and  now  the 
American  occupation,  with  its  breadth  of  ideas,  its  advance 
in  ethics,  and  its  adaptation  to  the  wants  of  an  aspiring 
population,  is  destined,  we  believe,  to  complete  the  evolution 
of  civilization,  and  to  weld  a  people,  to  prepare  them  for 
suffrage  and  to  lead  them  on  to  the  highest  of  civic  attain- 
ments— the  ability  to  govern  themselves. 

The  Tagals  are  not  alone  in  the  possession  of  the  single 
island  of  Luzon.  There  are  the  Pangasinanes,  numbering 
300,000;  the  Pampangoes,  with  quite  or  nearly  equal  num- 
bers, the  census  of  1876  quoting  their  population  as  294,000; 
and  others.  The  Tagal  population,  mainly  in  Luzon,  though 
found  in  some  other  islands  also,  numbers  1,500,000.  The 
Visayan  population  in  1877,  exclusive  of  the  less  domesti- 
cated tribes  in  the  Visayan  group,  was  2,000,000.  So  that 
the  right  of  the  Tagal  to  dominate  the  politics  of  the  archi- 
pelago must  be  further  modified  by  the  consideration  that 
his  race,  with  all  its  degrees  of  mixture,  constitutes  only 
one-sixth  of  the  population. 

The  discussion  of  native  traits  is  made  difficult  by  the  fact 
that  it  is  hard  to  find  the  original  Tagal,  unmixed  in  blood 
or  influenced  by  racial  environment. 


24  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

The  advent  of  the  foreigner  has  added  a  new  factor  to  the 
racial  problem,  and  the  Mestizos,  or  people  of  mixed  blood, 
are  found  in  considerable  numbers.  It  is  a  curious  ethno- 
logical study,  this  mixture  of  Malay  and  Mongol,  and  the 
racial  amalgamation  which  combines  European  and  Asiatic 
characteristics  in  the  same  personality. 

The  Mestizo-Espanol,  or  the  mixture  of  Spanish  and 
native  blood,  numbering  not  less  than  75,000,  and  probably 
very  many  more,  presents  the  type  of  native  aristocracy — 
the  people  who  measure  their  superiority  by  the  lightness 
of  their  complexion,  and  who  habitually  refer  to  the  pure- 
blooded  natives  in  disdain  or  commiseration  as  ' '  Indios ' '  or 
Indians. 

Foreman,  in  a  few  words  characterizes  them:  "We  find 
them  on  the  one  hand  striving  in  vain  to  disown  their  affinity 
to  the  inferior  races,  and  on  the  other  hand  jealous  of  their 
true-born  European  acquaintances.  A  morosity  of  disposi- 
tion is  the  natural  outcome.  Their  character  generally  is 
evasive  and  vacillating.  They  are  captious,  fond  of  litiga- 
tion, and  constantly  seeking  subterfuges.  They  appear 
always  dissatisfied  with  their  lot  in  life  and  inclined  to  foster 
grievances  against  whoever  may  be  in  office  over  them." 

The  Mestizo-Chino,  or  the  mixture  of  Chinese  and  native, 
who  represents  a  population  of  half  a  million  in  the  archi- 
pelago and  fully  one-sixth  of  the  population  of  the  city  of 
Manila,  may  be  referred  to  as  the  commercial  type,  although 
many  of  the  Spanish  Mestizos  have  likewise  achieved  suc- 
cess in  business. 

The  Mestizo- Japones,  or  Japanese  mixture,  while  repre- 
sented in  much  smaller  numbers  than  either  of  the  other 
classes,  presents  a  famous  type  of  quaint  Oriental  beauty. 

But  it  seems  to  be  the  ethnologic  law  that  miscegenation 
involves  an  eclecticism  in  vices,  and  it  is  not  strange  to  read 
from  the  pen  of  a  Spanish  writer  that  these  mixtures  have 
not  yet  accomplished  much  for  the  moral  welfare  of  the 
people.      He  says:    "We   have  now  a  querulous,  discon- 


The  Races  of  the  Philippines  25 

tented  population  of  half  castes,  who,  sooner  or  later,  will 
bring  about  a  distracted  state  of  society  and  occupy  the 
whole  force  of  the  government  to  stamp  out  the  discord." 

Aside  from  the  Mestizo  element,  it  is  hard  to  find  the 
original  characteristics  of  the  Tagals.  For  instance,  they 
are  referred  to  as  being  an  innately  religious  people,  but  the 
Roman  Church  has  been  among  them  for  four  hundred 
years,  and  it  is  not  easy  to  say  how  much  of  this  religious 
habit  has  been  acquired.  Certainly  the  form  of  its  mani- 
festation is  markedly  so.  The  law  under  which  the  Tagal 
has  lived  has  for  centuries  been  either  Spanish  or  that  of 
the  Roman  Church,  and  the  most  gradual  change  must,  in 
the  lapse  of  these  centuries,  under  this  environment,  have 
produced  mighty  modifications  of  native  character. 

American  opponents  of  annexation  have  in  a  few  foolish 
cases  painted  the  Tagal  as  measuring  up  with  Washington, 
Jefferson,  Franklin,  Penn  or  Lincoln,  those  phenomenal 
products  of  the  highest  civilization  on  earth.  These  men 
have  seen  a  vision  in  some  "iridescent  dream."  L,ife  in 
the  Philippines  will  dispel  it. 

On  the  other  hand,  some  who  have  suffered  severely  will 
proclaim  everything  bad  in  native  character;  that  they  would 
not  believe  a  Filipino  upon  oath,  nor  trust  him  in  a  trifle. 

No  race  is  as  bad  as  its  worst  member  nor  as  good  as  its 
best.  The  true  type  of  Tagal,  as  we  find  him,  is  a  com- 
posite of  the  good  and  the  bad  traits  of  character,  either 
inherent  or  imitated. 

Looking  at  the  subject  more  in  detail,  let  us  consider  the 
Tagal: 

1.  Socially. — Entering  a  native  dwelling,  the  stranger  is 
always  impressed  with  the  hospitable  spirit  of  its  inmates. 
He  is  made  to  feel  that  his  presence  is  an  honor.  And  so 
universal  is  this  trait  of  native  character,  that  one  always 
meets  it,  whether  in  the  more  pretentious  case  of  the  wealthy 
Mestizo  or  the  little  nipa  shelter  of  the  poor.  All  that  the 
family  can  afford  is  ever  at  the  disposition  of  the  guest. 


26  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

Cigars  or  cigarettes  are  in  every  house,  and  with  a  few 
exceptions,  are  used  by  every  native,  regardless  of  sex  or 
age,  and  an  abundant  supply  will  at  once  be  forthcoming. 
Chips  of  the  betel  nut,  wrapped  in  buyo  leaf  and  smeared 
with  lime  (the  native  substitute  for  tobacco  chewing),  will 
ordinarily  be  presented  unless  it  is  known  to  be  distasteful 
to  the  visitor.  "Dulce,"  a  generous  name  which  covers 
every  variety  of  sweets,  preserves  or  confections,  will  also 
be  provided  beyond  the  capacity  of  the  guest.  Then  some 
form  of  drink, — cervesa  or  beer,  certain  of  the  wines  of 
Spain  or  Portugal,  or  anisada,  that  vile  product  of  Philippine 
fermentation,  will  be  placed  before  him. 

It  will  be  a  profitable  reflection  for  those  who  are  engaged 
in  a  laudable  effort  to  prevent  the  bestialization  of  native 
races  by  foreign  alcoholic  importations,  to  consider  that  the 
gratification  of  Bacchanalian  proclivities  is  very  rarely 
dependent  upon  the  question  of  importation.  Most  races 
have  discovered  for  themselves  some  method  of  producing 
alcoholic  stimulation.  The  Japanese  make  merry  with  their 
saki ;  the  Russians,  with  their  vodka ;  the  Mexicans,  with 
mescal  and  tiswin  ;  the  Cheyennes,  with  a  red  berry  which 
they  guard  most  jealously ;  the  Apaches,  with  their 
too-dhlee-pah-ee  ;  the  Igorrotes,  with  fermented  cane-juice  ; 
the  Pampangoes,  with  a  fermentation  of  the  nipa  palm  ;  and 
the  Tagals,  with  this  vicious  fire-juice  that  bodes  as  great  ill 
to  the  American  as  foreign  liquors  do  to  the  Tagals.  But 
regardless  of  the  value  of  the  offering,  the  spirit  of 
generous  hospitality  is  there  and  it  is  universal. 

The  visitor  is  always  impressed  with  the  beautiful,  glossy 
black  hair  of  the  natives,  which,  in  the  case  of  the  women, 
is  commonly  very  long,  as  well  as  with  the  regularity  of 
their  pearly  teeth,  the  latter,  alas,  ruined  in  symmetry  and 
soundness  in  the  case  of  the  inveterate  betel-chewer,  and 
taking  on,  successively,  a  stain  from  red  to  black. 

Great  care  is  given  to  the  hair,  which  is  frequently  washed 
with  a  native  weed  well  worthy  of  American  importation, 


The  Races  of  the  Philippines  27 

and  afterwards  glossed  copiously  with  cocoanut  oil.  The 
latter  imparts  a  rather  disagreeably  rancid  odor  to  the  hair, 
but  is  undoubtedly  of  value,  as  the  natives  claim,  in  check- 
ing the  ravages  of  an  insect  which  has  a  short  English  name, 
but  among  the  natives,  is  as  formidable  as  the  technical 
name  of  Pediculus  Capitis  would  suggest.  The  sight  is  so 
common  as  to  lose  all  novelty,  as  natives  everywhere  recipro- 
cate in  attention  to  each  other's  hair,  and  without  any  sense 
of  shame,  in  the  communistic  effort  to  suppress  the  ravages 
of  this  pest.  The  picture  is  so  close  a  reproduction  of  the 
action  of  the  monkeys,  which  likewise  abound,  as  to  suggest 
a  Simian  ancestry  or  tutorship  for  man.  I  have  known 
Tagal  women  to  manifest  profound  surprise  when  told  that 
our  American  ladies  are  not  all  similarly  beset,  and  to 
laugh  most  heartily  at  an  intimation  that  they  would  be 
likely  to  go  into  mortified  seclusion  if  one  poor  pest  should 
trouble  them. 

The  beautifully  erect  carriage  of  the  women,  which 
attracts  the  attention  of  the  traveler,  is  largely  a  contribution 
to  their  physical  welfare  by  the  character  of  their  labor  ;  the 
custom  of  carrying  water  jugs  and  other  burdens  upon  the 
head,  necessitating  the  stiffening  of  the  spine  and  a  throwing 
back  of  the  shoulders,  as  well  as  a  proper  elevation  of  the 
head. 

The  Tagal  woman  goes  to  the  opposite  extreme  from  her 
Chinese  sisters,  and  gives  to  her  naturally  small  feet  full 
play  and  development  by  wearing  sandals  that  do  not  bind 
at  any  point.  And,  unlike  the  women  of  the  Occident,  she 
does  not  bind  herself  at  the  waist,  nor  is  she  physically 
injured  by  the  fickle  goddess  of  the  fashion-plate,  which 
requires  her  to  change  her  shape  every  four  or  five  years  to 
fit  the  dresses  which  are  built  for  her.  Always  erect  and 
unfettered,  nature  builds  her  form,  and  her  loose,  flowing 
costume,  while  there  may  be  variety  in  texture  and  adorn- 
ment, is  of  unvaried  shape  and  will  leave  her  at  the  end  to 
go  back  into  the  hands  of  her  Maker  undeformed. 


28  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

I  doubt  if  ever  more  quaintly  beautiful  costumes  or  a  more 
attractive  scene  have  been  witnessed  than  at  the  Mestizo 
reception  given  by  the  first  American  commission  at  their 
home  in  Malate  ;  the  scintillation  of  countless  diamonds 
adding  to  the  tropical  splendor. 

These  natives  are  great  bathers,  and  while  it  would  con- 
duce to  more  universal  cleanliness  if  soap  were  always  used, 
they  stand,  as  a  race,  as  close  to  godliness  as  water  alone  can 
place  them.  They  seem  almost  to  be  amphibious.  The  washer- 
women stand  waist  deep  in  water  all  day  long.  The  fisher, 
men  walk  about  in  the  water,  sometimes  neck  deep,  as  they 
ply  their  trade.  The  fish  must  have  taught  the  people  to 
swim,  so  naturally  do  they  glide  through  the  stream.  Even 
the  boys  and  the  girls  are  often  expert  divers,  and  consider  it 
an  easy  way  to  earn  money,  to  dive  for  coins  that  are  thrown 
in  the  water.  I  have  seen  the  men  descending  a  ladder  from 
their  boats  to  the  bottom  of  a  stream,  with  buckets  for 
dredging,  and  emerging  only  when  these  were  filled  with 
mud.  It  has  been  reported  of  them  that  they  have  dived 
under  ships  to  ascertain  whether  the  keels  have  been  dam- 
aged, and  that  in  case  of  trouble  they  have  gone  under  the 
water  to  repair  defective  sheets  of  copper,  driving  in  two  or 
three  nails  each  time  before  emerging  for  a  breath  of  air. 

The  imitativeness  of  the  people  is  both  a  tribute  to  their 
quickwittedness  and  also  an  acknowledgment  of  the  supe- 
riority of  the  races  whom  the}'  copy.  The  lavish  use  of  face- 
powder,  which,  on  occasion,  turns  perspiration  into  paste, 
has  often  seemed  to  me  a  pitiful  appeal  from  the  women  for 
deliverance  from  racial  inferiority. 

No  sooner  had  American  troops  appeared,  than  the  Tagal 
soldiers,  by  watching  them,  had  learned  our  drill  tactics  and 
were  applying  them  in  the  instruction  of  their  recruits.  The 
children,  everywhere  in  the  streets,  were  doing  the  same 
and  many  of  them  were  soon  able  to  faultlessly  execute  our 
manual  of  arms. 

This  imitative  ability,  which  is  a  very  marked  character- 


The  Races  of  the  Philippines  29 

istic  of  the  people,  is  an  evidence  of  a  lack  of  originality 
and  suggests  a  present  inability  for  the  duties  of  self-govern- 
ment, and  at  the  same  time  it  is  a  most  hopeful  factor  for 
the  United  States  in  the  effort  to  exemplify  the  form  of  liberal 
government  and  to  tutor  the  people  until  they  shall  be  able 
to  practice  it. 

The  gambling  propensity  of  the  people  is  not  indicative  of 
a  desire  to  take  life  very  seriously.  They  are  exceedingly 
fond  of  games  of  chance.  Lotteries  and  raffles  are  popular. 
I  have  seen  their  so-called  billiard  halls  crowded  with  men 
day  after  day,  while  the  women  toiled  at  home  to  make 
good  the  monetary  deficiency.  Racing  is  everywhere  preva- 
lent, not  only  on  the  race-courses  but  also  on  the  streets. 
The  ordinary  native  coachman  cannot  resist  the  temptation 
to  have  a  race  on  the  streets,  even  though  his  conveyance  be 
a  public  one.  But  it  is  in  cock-fighting  that  the  native  finds 
his  most  engrossing  amusement,  and  the  ' '  galleras  ' '  or  cock- 
ing-mains  are  always  scenes  of  intense  excitement  and  spirited 
betting.  It  is  the  commonest  of  sights  to  see  the  native 
carrying  his  favorite  rooster  with  him  when  he  goes  to  his 
place  of  work  or  for  a  visit.  My  own  cochero,  having  invested 
in  a  game-cock  of  apparently  good  points,  deemed  me  incom- 
prehensibly fastidious  because  I  objected  to  riding  through 
the  streets  of  Manila  to  the  palace  of  the  governor-general 
with  the  bird  perched  on  the  dash-board  in  front  of  him.  He 
afterward  told  me  that  his  rooster  had  killed  several  combat- 
ants and  had  won  $300. 

The  old  Spanish  law  permitted  marriage  between  girls  of 
twelve  years  and  boys  of  fifteen.  I  know  of  one  case  where 
one  of  these  young  husbands  became  disgusted  because  his 
wife  persisted  in  taking  her  doll  to  bed  with  her,  and  he 
broke  the  habit  and  the  doll  at  the  same  time.  The  court- 
ship as  a  rule  takes  place  in  the  presence  of  a  chaperon. 
There  is  an  utiwritten  law  that  a  young  man  and  woman 
must  not  ride  in  the  same  vehicle  unattended,  but  the  natives 
were  quick  to  commend  the  liberal  spirit  prevailing  among 


30  Annai&  of  the  American  Academy 

Americans  in  these  matters,  as  soon  as  their  astonishment 
had  passed  away. 

Civil  marriage,  though  once  decreed,  was  by  some  influ- 
ence rendered  inoperative,  and  the  ceremony  always  took 
place  when,  where,  and  as  the  priest  willed.  Each  of  the 
parties  gave  to  the  other  a  ring,  and  coin  was  also  used 
symbolically  in  the  ceremony  to  indicate  the  bride's  endow- 
ment by  her  husband. 

It  is  somewhat  puzzling  to  the  American  who  may  have 
legal  dealings  with  the  natives,  that  the  married  women 
customarily  sign  their  maiden  names.  Should  the  husband 
die,  the  woman  frequently  adds  to  her  own  maiden  name  the 

words,  ' '  widow  of . ' '     A  man  adds  his  mother's  maiden 

name  to  that  of  his  father,  after  his  own  Christian  name. 
Thus  the  recently  captured  dictator  wrote  on  the  visiting  card 
which  he  gave  me  the  name  "  Emilio  Aguinaldo  y  Famy." 

Family  ties  are  very  dear  to  these  people  and  their  home 
life  is  of  such  sweet  simplicity  as  to  captivate  the  stranger. 
At  the  sounding  of  the  vesper  bell  and  the  lighting  of  the 
tapers,  the  children  all  come  to  kiss  the  parents'  hands  and 
say  good  evening.  Even  as  you  ride  along  the  streets,  if  it 
becomes  dark  enough  to  light  the  side  lamps  of  your 
vehicle,  so  soon  as  they  are  lighted,  even  though  he  has 
been  conversing  with  you  a  moment  before,  your  coachman 
will  lift  his  hat  to  you  and  say  "  good  evening,  sir." 

Just  as  I  was  leaving  Manila  it  began  to  be  noised  abroad 
that  the  Americans,  wearied  with  the  vacillation  and  treach- 
ery of  many  of  the  surrendered  insurrectos,  and  determined 
to  end  the  inordinately  long  rebellion,  were  about  to  adopt 
the  deportation  policy  and  send  the  offenders  to  Guam.  So 
great  was  the  native  consternation  at  the  mere  rumor,  that 
it  was  very  easy  to  foresee  what  has  since  become  evident, 
that  this  threatened  rupture  of  family  ties  would  be  most 
effective  in  promoting  peace. 

2.  Industrially. — Industrially  considered,  the  Tagal  often 
proves  a  vexing  person.     That  the  land  is  not  all  cultivated, 


The  Races  of  the  Philippines  31 

the  existing  industries  fully  developed  and  new  ones  started, 
and  that  the  natives  are  not  rushing  with  American  energy 
to  get  at  their  tasks,  are  all  facts,  but  there  are  ameliorating 
considerations  which  must  lighten  the  severity  of  their  con- 
demnation for  indolence  and  shiftlessness. 

Their  Malay  ancestry  would  not  naturally  be  prophetic  of 
great  physical  vigor,  and  the  climatic  consequences  of  long- 
continued  life  in  the  tropics  inevitably  appear  in  a  disposi- 
tion to  take  things  easy.  There  is  always  a  tropical 
tendency  to  make  haste  slowly,  and  to  adopt  the  "  manana 
spirit ' '  of  putting  off  till  to-morrow  everything  which  inter- 
feres with  present  comfort.  It  is  very  easy,  and  equally 
wise,  to  fall  into  the  siesta-habit  and  doze  away  in  some 
protected  spot  the  hours  from  noon  till  2  p.  m.  When  we 
first  entered  Manila  and  until  the  American  energy  forced  a 
change,  the  stores  were  all  closed  during  these  hours  and  it 
seemed  as  if  the  world  had  gone  to  sleep. 

There  must  also  be  added  to  a  consideration  of  the  depres- 
sion and  enervation  of  climate  the  fact  that  there  was  no 
incentive  to  industry  under  the  old  regime.  So  heavy  was 
the  tax  upon  improvements  that  the  native  did  not  care  to 
make  them.  The  land  was  made  to  enrich  adventurers  who 
were  clothed  with  brief  authority.  The  history  of  the 
tobacco  monopoly  from  1781  to  1882,  more  than  a  century, 
had  we  the  time  to  relate  it,  would  show  a  despicable 
brutality  on  the  part  of  Spain  and  at  the  same  time  suggest 
a  reason  for  the  native  failure  hitherto  to  make  much  of  the 
natural  resources  of  the  country. 

The  people  have  my  sympathy  in  their  lack  of  industrial 
development,  and  I  am  sure  that  the  next  decade  will  wit- 
ness a  marvelous  advance  because  they  are  permitted  to 
profit  from  their  own  labor.  The  substitution  of  paternalism 
for  piracy  on  the  part  of  the  government  will  open  the  way 
for  the  development  of  industrious  habits. 

And  yet  there  has  been  industry  already,  commensurate 
with  the  promised  gain.     Various  fabrics  are  manufactured, 


32  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

as  well  as  hats  of  fine  texture  and  quality.  The  culture  of 
tobacco  and  the  manufacture  of  cigars  and  cigarettes  has 
already  reached  large  proportions.  The  laborious  culture  of 
rice,  when  it  is  considered  that  every  little  blade  in  the 
paddy  fields  must  be  transplanted  by  hand,  speaks  volumes 
for  the  native  patience.  The  fisher- folk,  with  their  immense 
contributions  to  the  popular  diet,  are  worthy  members  of 
their  craft.  There  are  mechanics,  too, — wheelwrights,  black- 
smiths, turners,  carvers,  carpenters,  painters,  stonemasons, 
machinists,  engineers,  shoemakers  and  others — bread  win- 
ners, and  demanding  recognition  by  the  student  of  industrial 
capacity  and  development  among  this  people.  And,  as  else- 
where, woman  has  her  function  in  the  industrial  salvation  of 
her  race,  and,  whether  we  find  her  as  a  fisherwoman,  or 
vending  the  products  of  sea  and  land;  taking  her  place  in  the 
padd)'  fields  or  assisting  in  the  culture  of  tobacco  and  its 
preparation  for  sale  and  use;  as  seamstress,  or  bending  from 
early  morning  till  late  at  night  over  the  low  frames  in  which 
her  exquisite  embroidery  and  drawn  work  are  done;  she  is 
doing  what  she  can  and  will  do  more  when  it  becomes  worth 
while. 

3.  Politically. — Viewing  the  Tagal  politically  we  fail  to  see 
on  what  basis  men  can  predicate  his  capacity  for  self-govern- 
ment. The  idea  of  independence  was  unknown  in  the  earlier 
insurrection,  when  Aguinaldo  sold  himself  to  Spain  in  the 
treaty  of  Biaknabato.  That  insurrection  was  caused  simply 
by  an  overmastering  desire  to  accomplish  certain  reforms, 
such  as  the  ejection  of  the  friars  and  the  secularization  of 
education,  and  yet  there  was  no  proposition  to  lower  the 
Spanish  flag. 

If  the  Tagal  is  capable  of  self-government,  the  knowledge 
must  be  intuitive,  for  he  has  had  no  tutorage,  having  been 
kept  always  in  most  subordinate  places.  He  has  had  no 
example.  There  has  been  before  him  no  type  of  enduring 
government.  He  has  seen  only  a  government  that  was  fall- 
ing by  the  weight  of  its  own  clumsiness,  and  losing  its  grip 


The  Races  of  the  Philippines  33 

on  every  colonial  possession  in  the  on-coming  palsy  of  its 
own  corruption.  As  a  result  of  it,  the  native  has  never 
gotten  beyond  the  idea  of  quid  pro  quo  in  government.  He 
expected  always  to  pay  the  American  officials  for  every  act 
of  justice  or  consideration,  as  he  had  paid  the  Spaniards,  and 
in  so  far  as  the  insurrectionary  Tagal  has  had  control  in 
IyUzon,  the  policy  has  been  one  of  loot  and  taxation  and 
oppression  worthy  of  the  days  of  Spain.  He  lives  in  the 
typhoon  area,  and  even  aside  from  the  hopelessness  of  his 
governing  the  other  tribes,  his  moral  atmosphere  is  such  as 
to  produce  revolutions  within  his  own  territory, — as  may  be 
inferred  from  Aguinaldo's  changes,  from  general  to  dictator, 
from  dictator  to  president,  assassinating  Luna  to  cut  short 
his  rivalry,  and  again  becoming  dictator  before  his  capture. 
It  is  never  wise  to  build  theories  and  try  them  on  men,  but 
rather  to  measure  the  man  and  make  theories  that  will  fit 
him. 

4.  Religiously . — Formerly  the  natives  were  pagans,  but 
nearly  all  are,  at  least  nominally,  members  of  the  Roman 
Church. 

There  is  everywhere  manifested  a  fatalistic  spirit,  and  the 
native,  when  told  that  his  friend  must  die,  will  shrug  his 
shoulders  and  say  "  Dios  quiere,"  "God  wills,"  and  that 
ends  the  discussion. 

Many  superstitions  cling  to  the  people.  The  more  igno- 
rant native  trusts  implicitly  in  some  form  of  ' '  n'ting  n'ting," 
or  mysterious  hieroglyphic  which,  if  worn  constantly  on  his 
person,  will  ward  off  disease  and  death.  The  Roman  custom 
of  wearing  scapulars  seems  in  some  way  connected  in  their 
minds  with  this  primitive  belief,  and  the  women  particu- 
larly, will  often  deck  themselves  with  a  half  dozen  scapulars, 
with  an  evident  reliance  on  numbers. 

There  must  have  been  a  popular  belief  that  Aguinaldo 
possessed  some  choice  bit  of  "n'ting  n'ting,"  for  I  have 
been  told  by  Tagals,  with  utmost  solemnity,  that  he  was 
absolutely  impervious  to  bullets;  that  they  would  be  deflected 


34  Annai^s  of  the  American  Academy 

by  his  anatomy  as  readily  as  by  a  stone  wall.  His  head- 
quarters have  always  been  so  far  to  the  rear  as  to  render 
tests  impossible. 

Great  reliance  is  placed  on  images  and  relics.  One  of  my 
first  offices  was  to  secure  for  a  native  nun  the  hand  of  San 
Vicente,  which  had  been  placed  in  the  custody  of  the  provost 
marshal  general  for  safe  keeping.  It  has  since  been  within 
reach  of  the  people,  who  attribute  to  it  miraculous  ministry 
in  behalf  of  the  sick.  Pilgrimages,  too,  frequently  take 
place,  the  Tagals  visiting  mainly,  although  there  are  others, 
the  Virgin  of  Antipolo,  in  search  of  certain  physical  and 
spiritual  relief. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  at  least  a  nominal  Christianity 
is  prevalent.  Ramon  Reyes  Lala,  a  native  and  a  Roman 
Catholic,  writes  that  he  has  ' '  often  seen  delinquent  parish- 
ioners flogged  for  non-attendance  at  mass."  And  the 
supreme  court  edict  in  1696  imposed  a  penalty  of  twenty 
lashes  and  two  months'  labor  upon  the  Chinese- Mestizos  and 
others  who  failed  "  to  go  to  church  and  act  according  to  the 
established  customs  of  the  village."  The  female  delinquent 
endured  a  month's  public  penance. 

Many  of  the  Tagals  share  the  belief  of  the  Tinguianes 
that  the  soul  absents  itself  from  the  body  during  sleep,  and 
that  sudden  awakening  must  be  avoided,  through  the  fear 
that  the  soul  might  fail  to  get  back  in  time  and  so  be  com- 
pelled to  wander  alone. 

Like  all  partially  civilized  people,  these  are  fond  of  display, 
adornment,  and  ceremonial,  and  the  Roman  Church  has  been 
thoughtful  in  this  respect  in  providing  a  patron  saint  for 
every  puebla  and  in  arranging  frequent  fiestas. 

5.  Morally. — Morally,  the  Tagal  has  puzzled  many  stu- 
dents by  his  peculiar  freaks.  Foreman  quotes  from  the 
testimony  of  a  priest  who  had  spent  many  years  in  Batangas 
province.  He  says:  "  A  native  will  serve  a  master  satisfac- 
torily for  years  and  then  suddenly  abscond,  or  commit  some 
such  hideous  crime  as  conniving  with  a  brigand  band  to 
murder  the  famity  and  pillage  the  house." 


The  Races  of  the  Philippines  35 

Duplicity,  falsehood  and  theft  abound.  That  the  native 
conscience  has  not  been  better  educated  along  these  lines,  is 
probably  due  to  the  fact  that  the  Spanish  colonial  govern" 
ment,  as  they  saw  it,  was  constantly  exemplifying  the  same 
vices. 

The  Oriental  characteristic  of  extortion  is  nowhere  better 
illustrated  than  among  the  Tagals,  who  understand  the 
"pound  of  flesh"  theory,  that  they  are  to  be  paid  exactly 
as  nominated  in  the  bond,  and  who  are  content  with  such 
payment,  but  when  the  indulgent  employer  offers  even  a 
trifle  beyond,  will  clamor  loudly  for  a  great  deal  more.  For 
any  sort  of  service  or  commodity  it  is  still  the  custom  to 
make  a  racial  distinction  in  prices.  A  native  coachman  once 
told  me  with  smiling  suavity  that  he  should  charge  me  one 
dollar  for  my  short  ride;  that  he  would  have  charged  a 
Spaniard  fifty  cents,  and  a  native  forty  cents — every  man 
according  to  his  means;  that  Americans  had  plenty  of  money 
and  could  pay  more.  Under  the  Spanish  law  he  was  entitled 
to  exactly  twenty  cents. 

The  modesty  of  the  women  is  marked,  and  yet  there  is  no 
false  modesty.  Their  attitudes  are  always  decorous.  Guests 
must  never  see  them  without  the  customary  panuela  or  neck- 
erchief. And  yet  they  talk  innocently  of  many  subjects  that 
would  shock  the  propriety  of  parlor  gatherings  in  America. 

The  pride  of  the  women  in  child-bearing  is  notable,  and 
a  discussion  of  the  matter  among  acquaintances  is  not  at  all 
inappropriate. 

Marital  fidelity,  at  least  on  the  part  of  the  women,  is  the 
rule.  Prostitution  is  not  unknown,  and  instead  of  the  civ- 
ilized system  of  divorce,  they  have  a  substitute,  in  the  system 
of  marriage  by  contract,  under  which  the  parties  remain 
together,  month  by  month,  just  so  long  as  each  is  satisfied 
and  the  bills  are  paid.  People  living  in  this  state  are  not 
looked  upon  with  the  same  degree  of  disfavor  as  the  ordinary 
prostitutes. 

Cruelty  to  animals  is  an  unfortunate  blot  upon  native 


36  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

character.  The  Society  for  the  Prevention  of  Cruelty  to 
Animals  has  fallen  heir  to  a  magnificent  mission  beyond  the 
Pacific. 

6.  Educationally. — Reference  has  frequently  been  made  in 
America  to  the  slight  percentage  of  illiteracy  among  the 
Tagals,  and  while  it  is  true  that  large  numbers  of  the  people 
can  read  and  write,  it  is  also  true  that  the  whole  educational 
system  under  Spanish  auspices  was  very  much  of  a  sham. 
Very  little  of  the  ordinary  common  school  curriculum  in 
America  found  its  way  into  a  Tagal  school.  With  a  total 
outlay  of  $238,650  in  1888,  for  educational  work  in  the  whole 
archipelago,  and  the  payment  of  about  fifteen  dollars  Mexi- 
can, for  a  teacher's  monthly  stipend,  it  would  seem  that  the 
real  work  of  education  had  scarcely  been  attempted.  The 
teaching  of  doctrine  was  the  main  result  of  the  system, 
although  there  are  three  or  four  schools  of  excellent  grade 
under  the  control  of  the  church. 

The  deficiency  in  the  line  of  popular  education  is  not  due 
to  any  defect  in  the  Tagal  mind.  Brilliant  men  were  for- 
merly in  danger  of  death  or  deportation. 

The  desire  of  the  Tagal  children  for  a  knowledge  of  Eng- 
lish is  one  of  the  most  encouraging  signs,  together  with  the 
hope  of  the  parents  that  they  may  be  tutored  to  the  very 
limit  of  their  ability;  a  hope  whose  fulfilment  is  being  pro- 
vided for  by  the  very  liberal  appropriations  of  the  Taft  Com- 
mission and  the  able  planning  of  the  superintendent,  Dr.  F. 
W.  Atkinson. 

The  Tagals  want  the  American  public  school,  and  it  is 
destined  to  prove  a  mighty  factor  in  their  evolution  and  our 
peace. 

7.  Artistically. — The  native  wood-carving  in  the  Jesuit 
Church  in  Manila  and  elsewhere,  gives  evidence  of  much 
ability. 

I  have  often  looked  at  Luna's  celebrated  painting,  "  The 
Blood  Compact, ' '  which  became  the  property  of  the  Spanish 
government,  and  could  not  wonder  that  his  people  regarded 


The;  Races  of  the;  Philippines  37 

him  as  a  master.  Another  masterpiece  from  this  Tagal 
hand  was  purchased  by  the  city  of  Barcelona,  after  having 
been  awarded  the  second  prize  at  the  exhibition  in  Madrid. 

I  have  always  held  that  no  one  can  be  regarded  as  hope- 
less who  loves  music.  If  this  be  true,  there  is  everything 
to  hope  from  the  Tagal  people,  for  their  love  of  music  is 
universal  and  their  musical  genius  extraordinary.  Herein 
is  large  opportunity  for  their  imitative  powers,  and  they 
make  extensive  use  of  it.  A  great  many  of  them  have 
learned  to  play  by  note,  but  a  multitude  of  others  make 
marvelous  progress  in  simply  playing  what  they  hear. 
American  and  European  ballads  are  heard  in  the  majority 
of  native  homes.  Occasionally  one  is  found  with  some- 
thing of  the  genius  of  a  composer,  and  if  only  the  training 
could  be  added  that  would  help  the  man  to  realize  his  con- 
ception, the  world  would  begin  to  know  it.  Bands  and 
orchestras  everywhere  abound.  The  bass  drummer  is  the 
leader,  and  the  ability  to  play  by  ear  enables  the  musician 
to  do  as  good  work  in  the  dark  as  in  the  light. 

One  of  my  pleasantest  remembrances  of  ante-insurrection- 
ary days  is  of  a  serenade  from  the  Pasig  Band  of  some  seventy 
pieces,  as  they  stood  around  the  house  in  the  dark  and 
played  for  our  pleasure  one  difficult  selection  after  another, 
and  as  faultlessly  as  the  most  fastidious  could  desire. 

There  is  often  a  shortage  in  musical  taste,  as  when  an 
orchestra  plays  ' '  The  Star  Spangled  Banner  ' '  at  the  elevation 
of  the  host  during  mass,  or  when  the  band  at  a  funeral  strikes 
up  "There '11  Be  a  Hot  Time  in  the  Old  Town  To-night."  But 
it  is  all-important  to  have  so  universal  a  musical  instinct. 
The  matter  of  taste  will  receive  attention  and  education  from 
American  enthusiasts  later  on. 

8.  Pathologically. — The  ravages  of  disease  among  the 
Tagals  often  result  from  lack  of  care,  lack  of  knowledge  and 
neglect  of  the  simplest  principles  of  sanitary  science. 

Small-pox  has  always  been  a  scourge  during  the  hot  sea- 
son, or  at  the  close  of  winter,  but  there  was  formerly  no 


38  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

system  of  quarantine,  and  one  might  as  easily  meet  a  case 
in  the  street  car  as  anywhere  else.  The  American  occupa- 
tion has  resulted  in  greatly  reducing  the  sick  rate  from  this 
cause. 

I^eprosy  has  been  of  more  frequent  occurrence  than  was 
necessary.  For,  while  certain  leper  hospitals  were  estab- 
lished, there  was  no  very  earnest  effort  at  segregation.  The 
Emperor  of  Japan  sent  a  cargo  of  lepers  to  the  islands  at 
one  time.  The  American  authorities  have  been  arranging 
for  a  leper  settlement  on  one  of  the  smaller  islands  and  with 
careful  handling  of  the  subject  will  doubtless  check  the 
spread  of  the  disorder. 

Death  in  child-birth  is  very  common,  and  infantile  dis- 
eases, during  the  first  month,  prove  fatal  in  about  25  per 
cent  of  cases. 

Intestinal  disorders  are  particularly  to  be  dreaded  because 
of  their  virulence  and  stubbornness. 

Anaemia  and  its  results  among  women  is  a  fruitful  source 
of  danger.  In  so  many  cases  disordered  menstruation  fol- 
lows and  its  neglect  saps  the  very  foundation  of  health. 

Pulmonary  disorders  are  of  more  frequent  occurrence  than 
is  ordinarily  supposed. 

Cutaneous  diseases  are  exceedingly  common,  whether  pro- 
duced by  the  prevalent  fish  diet,  as  is  often  claimed,  or  not. 
I  have  heard  it  stated  many  times  that  syphilitic  disorders  are 
very  widespread.  But  I  have  seen  so  many  of  these  alleged 
syphilitic  sores  healed  by  a  free  use  of  soap  and  water,  or  by 
some  simple  antiseptic  preparation,  as  to  convince  me  that 
in  a  majority  of  cases,  they  are  caused  by  scratching  mosquito 
bites  or  abrasions  of  the  skin  with  an  unclean  finger-nail. 

Dobee  itch — the  name  being  derived  from  the  Hindu  word 
dhobi,  signifying  a  washerman — is  probably  a  common 
cause  of  the  scratching  habit  among  the  natives,  and  has 
harassed  many  Americans  of  scrupulously  cleanly  ways.  It 
is  truly  a  washerman's  itch,  and  is  transmitted  to  the  for- 
eigner by  the  hidden  germs  in  his  laundered  clothing,  clean 


The  Races  of  the  Philippines  39 

as  it  may  appear  when  it  returns  from  the  wash.  The 
washer-folk,  despite  all  advice  to  the  contrary,  will  persist 
in  using  cold  and  often  dirty  water  for  all  laundry  purposes, 
and  will  not  subject  the  linen  to  the  boiling  process.  The 
result  to  the  wearer  of  the  clothing  is  often  a  maddening 
irritation  of  the  skin,  which  will  spare  neither  low  born  nor 
those  of  high  degree. 

Verily,  laundry  in  the  Philippines  is  a  lottery,  and  one 
never  knows  whether  the  remnants  of  his  underwear  which 
are  brought  to  him  after  they  have  been  clubbed  and  pound- 
ed on  the  rocks  by  his  native  laundryman  are  bringing  him 
a  heritage  of  cutaneous  irritation  and  muscular  activity  or 
not. 

When  American  methods  prevail,  as  one  day  they  will, 
in  Luzon,  the  itch  of  the  dobees,  like  the  oppression  of  «the 
Dons,  will  be  but  a  dream  of  long  ago. 

Much  remains  to  be  done  for  the  Tagal  from  a  medical 
point  of  view,  but  he  has  already  been  blessed  with  wonder- 
ful sanitary  improvement  since  Manila  became  an  American 
city. 

Conclusion. — Without  any  attempt  at  exhaustive  treat- 
ment, for  a  very  great  deal  remains  to  be  said,  I  have 
endeavored  to  give  some  hints  that  may  be  helpful  in  form- 
ing an  estimate  of  Tagal  life  and  character. 

And  now  a  final  word  as  to  this  newest  baby  in  our  polit- 
ical famiby.  We  didn't  expect  him,  but  we  have  him.  We 
don't  like  his  complexion  or  his  features,  but  he  may  out- 
grow them.  He  hasn't  been  a  good  baby  thus  far,  and 
we've  lost  a  lot  of  sleep  on  account  of  him.  He's  been  a 
costly  mortal,  but  that  is  not  unusual.  And,  after  all,  we 
begin  to  like  him  just  a  little,  and  look  forward  to  the  time 
when  we  may  take  paternal  pride  in  his  achievements. 


THE  SEMI-CIVILIZED  TRIBES  OF  THE 
PHILIPPINE  ISLANDS.  BY  REV.  OLIVER  C. 
MILLER,  A.M.,  D.D.,  CHAPLAIN  U.  S.  ARMY 


(4i; 


THE  SEMI-CIVILIZED   TRIBES   OF   THE   PHILIP- 
PINE ISLANDS. 

By  Rev.  Oliver  C.  Miller,  A.  M., 

Chaplain  U.  S.  Army. 

Having  spent  over  a  year  with  the  advance  guard  of  our 
army  in  the  Philippines,  I  had  an  opportunity  to  see  much 
of  the  natives.  From  my  deep  interest  in  them,  I  always 
esteem  it  a  privilege  to  write  anything  that  will  tend  to 
make  their  condition  better  understood,  and  advance  them 
in  that  development  for  which  I  have  found  them  eminently 
fitted.  It  must  be  remembered  that  one  cannot  see  the 
best  of  a  people  after  they  have  been  actively  engaged 
for  over  four  years  in  trying  to  throw  off  the  oppressive  Span- 
ish yoke,  and  who  were,  at  the  time  I  was  among  them,  for 
the  lack  of  a  right  understanding  of  the  kindly  intentions  of 
our  government,  in  a  state  of  rebellion  against  our  own  flag. 

To  see  the  people  of  any  country  one  must  go  beyond  the 
seaport  towns,  far  into  the  interior.  This  I  had  an  oppor- 
tunity of  doing;  often  being  with  the  first  American  troops. 
that  had  been  seen  in  the  land,  from  Northern  Luzon  to  the 
Sulu  group. 

I  want  to  state  at  the  very  beginning  of  this  article,  that 
I  have  become  very  fond  of  the  races  of  the  Philippines. 
And,  after  traveling  both  in  China  and  Japan  I  can  truth- 
fully say  that  I  prefer  them  to  any  foreigners  I  have  ever 
visited.  What  makes  them  so  interesting  is  that  one  is 
relieved  of  that  sameness  which  is  so  manifest  in  other 
foreign  countries.  Each  tribe,  and,  indeed,  each  section  of 
the  same  tribe,  presents  something  new. 

Our  brave  General  Lawton,  whose  chaplain  it  was  my 
privilege  to  be,  well  understood  and  loved  these  people.  No 
man  could  fight  them  so  hard,  and  none  could  excel  him  in 
their  protection  and  right  treatment  when  once  they  were. 

(43) 


44  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

subdued.  He  saw  with  prophetic  eye  the  splendid  suscepti- 
bilities of  the  people  of  the  Philippines.  And  their  love 
for  him  is  still  unceasing.  The  following  incident  tells  of 
their  devotion  to  him:  A  few  months  ago,  while  the  writer 
was  standing  at  his  grave  in  our  beautiful  Arlington,  a  num- 
ber of  visitors  gathered  around,  and  while  speaking  of  our 
fallen  hero  there  was  no  heart  more  moved  with  sorrow 
than  that  of  a  Filipino  student  who  happened  to  be  there. 

The  races  of  the  Philippines  have  their  failings,  but  they 
have  been  dreadfully  misrepresented.  No  one  who  has 
made  a  study  of  the  human  heart  and  acquired  a  God-like 
sympathy  and  compassion  for  the  frailties  of  mortals,  or  who 
at  all  understands  the  Fatherhood  of  the  race  in  God,  or  the 
brotherhood  in  His  Son,  can  fail  to  see  the  uplifting,  Divine 
mission  of  America  in  the  Philippines.  Our  greatest  danger 
is  with  ourselves,  lest  we  fail  in  those  excellencies  of  char- 
acter which  qualify  us  to  teach  and  lift  up  those  who  have  not 
had  the  same  opportunities.  Our  greatest  need  in  these  days 
of  territorial  expansion  is  charaderial  expansion.  The 
maintenance  of  our  own  integrity  and  uprightness  of  char- 
acter must  qualify  us  to  be  teachers  of  others.  The  Spanish 
government  has  made  mistakes  enough  along  these  lines  to 
last  for  ages. 

While  speaking  of  the  semi-civilized  tribes,  we  must  not 
fail  to  mention  the  thousands  of  uncivilized  people  who  look 
up  to  us  for  their  first  lessons.  These  are  scattered  over  all 
the  islands,  and  usually  dwell  upon  the  mountain  tops. 
Chief  among  them  are  the  Negritos,  supposed  to  be  the 
aborigines.  They  are  very  dark,  with  curly  hair — a  puny, 
stupid  race  of  Negroid  dwarfs,  and  capable  of  but  little 
development;  most  likely  destined  to  disappear  before  the 
advance  of  civilization.  To  this  rule,  however,  the  Igorrotes 
are  likely  to  prove  an  exception,  as  they  are  a  splendid  race 
physically.  In  some  localities  they  are  already  asking  for 
English  schools.  These  uncivilized  tribes  vary  in  different 
parts  of  the  archipelago,  and  are  usually  of  a  low  order;  but 


Skmi- Civilized  Tribes  of  the  Philippines        45 

rarely  ever  hostile  to  strangers,  though  frequently  at  war 
among  their  own  tribes.  They  are  found  in  great  numbers, 
and  are  compelled  by  the  semi-civilized  tribes  to  seek  the 
mountain  tops  for  places  of  abode. 

Since  the  Igorrotes  form  the  link  between  the  uncivilized 
and  the  semi-civilized  tribes  it  may  be  well  for  us  to  give  a 
brief  description  of  them.  They  are  scattered  about  the 
mountain  tops  of  the  northern  half  of  L,uzon.  They  are  of 
a  copper  color,  wear  their  hair  long,  have  high  cheek-bones, 
broad  shoulders  and  brawny  and  powerful  limbs.  The  men 
have  strong  chests  and  well-developed  muscles  of  great 
strength  and  power  of  endurance.  The  women  have  well- 
formed  figures  and  rounded  limbs.  Both  sexes  wear  their 
hair  cut  in  a  fringe  over  their  foreheads,  reaching  down  to 
the  eyebrows  and  covering  the  ears,  and  left  long  enough 
in  the  back  to  be  gathered  up  into  a  knot.  Their  dress 
varies  from  a  mere  apron  to  a  handsome  jacket  of  blue,  crim- 
son or  white  stripes.  While  the  word  Igorrote  has  come  to 
be  synonymous  with  heathen  highlander,  it  must  not  be 
forgotten  that  this  tribe  in  many  places  manifests  some  degree 
of  civilization.  Tattooing  is  very  common  among  them, 
and  in  central  Benguit,  where  they  worship  the  sun,  one 
can  hardly  find  a  man  or  woman  who  has  not  a  figure  of 
the  sun  tattooed  in  blue  on  the  back  of  the  hand.  They 
manufacture  quite  a  number  of  crude-looking  articles,  such 
as  short,  double-edged  swords,  javelins  and  axes. 

They  are  great  smokers,  and  drink  a  beer  made  of  fer- 
mented cane-juice,  but  have  not  adopted  the  Malayan  custom 
of  chewing  buyo.  There  is  a  settlement  of  Christian  Igor- 
rotes  on  the  coast  of  Ilocos  Sur.  This,  however,  is  the  one 
exception  to  their  constant  determination  to  resist  any  effort 
on  the  part  of  the  Catholic  Church  to  convert  them  to  Chris- 
tianity. They  express  no  desire  to  go  to  the  same  heaven 
as  the  Spaniard,  since  the  officers  and  men  composing  the 
expedition  sent  against  them  in  1881  so  abominably  abused 
their  women. 


46  Annai,s  of  the  American  Academy 

The  richest  man  among  them  is  usually  made  chief,  and 
the  wealthier  families  vie  with  one  another  in  a  display  of 
wealth  at  their  great  feasts;  the  common  people  among 
them  not  being  invited,  but  only  allowed  to  assemble  at  beat 
of  drum.  Their  houses  are  built  upon  posts  above  the 
ground,  or  supported  by  four  trunks  of  trees,  and  thatched 
with  canes  or  bamboo  and  roofed  with  elephant  grass. 
They  are  much  inferior  to  the  houses  of  the  domesticated 
natives,  having  no  chimneys  or  windows;  only  a  small  door, 
the  ladder  to  which  is  drawn  up  at  night  for  protection 
against  their  enemies.  Though  superior  in  some  respects  to 
the  Tagals,  they  are  much  inferior  to  them  in  regard  to 
cleanliness.  They  neglect  to  wash  their  clothing  or  clean 
their  houses.  Each  village  has  a  town-hall,  where  the 
council  assembles  to  attend  to  the  litigation  for  the  commu- 
nity, such  as  administering  punishment  to  the  guilty  and 
hearing  requests  for  divorces.  At  this  place  also  the  public 
festivals  take  place,  and  are  very  unique  and  interesting. 
Their  language  consists  of  several  dialects,  and  some  of  their 
head  men  coming  in  contact  with  the  Ilocanos  have  learned 
to  speak  and  write  their  language  for  the  purpose  of  trading. 
Some  twenty  years  ago  they  conducted  seven  schools  in 
Lepanto,  which  were  attended  by  six  hundred  children,  of 
whom  one-sixth  could  read  and  write.  Writers  who  know 
them  best  give  them  credit  for  great  industry  and  skill  in 
everything  they  undertake.  They  possess  many  manufac- 
tured articles,  embracing  uniforms,  weapons  of  war,  sword 
belts,  medicine  pouches,  accoutrements  for  their  horses, 
beautiful  woven  garments  for  the  chief  women,  ornamented 
waterpots,  great  varieties  of  hats,  and  waterproof  capes 
made  of  the  leaves  of  the  anajas.  They  abound  in  orna- 
ments, such  as  necklaces  made  of  reeds,  the  vertebrae  of 
snakes,  colored  seeds,  coronets  of  rattan  and  of  sweet- 
scented  wood.  The  "  chachang"  is  a  plate  of  gold,  used 
by  their  chiefs  to  cover  their  teeth  at  feasts  or  when  they 
present  themselves  to   distinguished  visitors.     They  excel 


Semi-Civilized  Tribes  of  the  Philippines       47 

in  the  manufacture  of  household  articles  and  musical  instru- 
ments. 

The  Tinguianes  dwell  in  the  district  of  Elabra,  Luzon  ; 
and  were  under  the  Spanish  control.  In  their  advance 
toward  civilization  they  surpass  the  Igorrotes,  and  are 
entitled  to  be  classed  among  the  semi-civilized  tribes.  They 
prefer  to  make  their  own  laws  and  usually  abide  by  them. 
The  head  man  of  the  village  is  the  judge,  and  upon  assum- 
ing his  office  he  takes  the  following  oath:  "May  the  destruc- 
tive whirlwind  kill  me,  may  the  lightning  strike  me,  and 
may  the  alligator  devour  me  when  I  am  asleep  if  I  fail  to  do 
my  duty."  As  a  race  they  are  very  intelligent  and  well 
formed,  many  of  them  being  really  handsome.  They  are 
supposed  to  have  descended  from  the  Japanese,  shipwrecked 
upon  the  Philippine  coasts;  like  the  Japanese,  they  wear  a 
tuft  of  hair  on  the  crown  of  their  heads,  tattoo  their  bodies, 
and  blacken  their  teeth.  They  are  very  fond  of  music, 
and  are  pagans  without  temples,  it  being  their  custom  to  hide 
their  gods  in  the  mountain  caves.  They  believe  in  the 
efficacy  of  prayer  to  supply  material  needs, — are  mono- 
gamists, and  their  children  are  generally  forced  to  marry 
before  the  age  of  puberty.  The  bridegroom  or  his  father 
must  purchase  the  bride.  They  live  in  cabins  on  posts  or 
in  trees,  sometimes  sixty  feet  from  the  ground.  When 
attacked  they  throw  down  stones  upon  their  enemies,  and 
by  this  method  of  protection  they  can  dwell  quite  securely. 
Like  all  head  hunters,  they  adorn  their  dwellings  with  the 
skulls  of  their  victims,  carry  a  lance  as  a  common  weapon, 
and  are  without  bows  and  arrows.  They  appear  to  be  as 
intelligent  as  the  ordinary  subdued  natives;  and  are  by  no 
means  savages,  nor  entirely  strangers  to  domestic  life.  Thus 
far  their  conversion  to  Christianity  has  proven  impossible. 

In  the  Morong  District  of  Luzon  there  is  a  race  of  people 
who  are  supposed  to  be  descendants  of  the  Hindoos  who 
deserted  from  the  British  army  during  their  occupation  of 
Manila,  and  migrated  up  the  Pasig  River.     Their  notable 


48  Annates  of  the  American  Academy 

features  are  black  skin,  aquiline  nose,  bright  expression 
and  regular  features.  They  are  Christians,  law-abiding,  and 
more  industrious  than  the  Philippine  natives.  They  were  the 
only  class  who  paid  their  taxes,  and  yet,  on  the  ground  that 
generations  ago  they  were  intruders  on  the  soil,  they  were 
more  heavily  laden  with  imposts  than  their  neighbors.  In 
addition  to  these  a  few  Albinos  are  to  be  seen  on  the  islands. 

The  Pampangos  are  a  most  interesting  tribe,  dwelling 
mainly  in  the  provinces  of  Pampauga  and  Tarlac.  In  1876 
they  numbered  294,000.  Their  language  differs  from  that 
of  the  Tagal,  and  many  of  the  better  class  speak  both  lan- 
guages. This  tribe  is  much  like  the  Tagal  in  character, 
and  the  difference  comes  largely  from  environment  and 
occupation.  The  Pampango  excels  in  agriculture,  is  a  good 
organizer  of  labor,  rides  well,  is  a  good  hunter,  and  makes 
a  bold  and  determined  sailor.  The  Spanish  used  them  to 
great  advantage  as  soldiers  in  fighting  against  the  Moros, 
British  and  Dutch.  They  have  many  fine  houses,  and  are  a 
good  class  of  natives.  The  traveler  will  never  fail  to  find 
them  hospitable.  Their  principal  industry  is  the  cultivation 
of  sugar,  and  from  it  they  make  considerable  money, 
notwithstanding  the  great  disadvantages  experienced  on 
account  of  the  unfavorable  conditions  imposed  upon  them  by 
the  government  of  Spain.  When  peace  is  once  restored, 
hardly  any  people  in  the  archipelago  will  be  found  to  excel 
them  in  thrift,  with  the  favoring  opportunities  given  under 
American  occupation.  They  are  classed  among  domesticated 
natives,  are  converts  of  the  established  church,  and  manifest 
a  considerable  degree  of  civilization.  These  people  and  the 
surrounding  half-savage  tribes  are,  perhaps,  the  largest 
dealers  in  the  most  important  product,  nipa  palm,  used  so 
extensively  in  house-building  as  a  thatching,  both  for  sides 
and  roof.  The  juice  of  the  plant  is  also  fermented  and  dis- 
tilled, and  produces  abundant  alcohol  in  the  strongest  form. 

The  Pampangos  may  well  be  accounted  the  best  horsemen 
among  the  natives.     Some  of  them  hunt  the  deer  on  ponies, 


Semi-Civiuzed  Tribes  of  the  Philippines       49 

and  chase  at  full  speed  up  or  down  the  mountains,  no  matter 
how  rough,  and  often  get  near  enough  to  throw  or  even  use 
the  lance  in  hand.  Their  saddles  are  of  a  miniature  Mexi- 
can pattern,  and  their  ponies,  about  twelve  or  thirteen  hands 
high,  are  strong  and  enduring,  as  was  shown  by  their  carry- 
ing the  heavily  accoutred  American  cavalrymen,  over  what 
might  be  termed  impassable  roads,  with  almost  as  much 
ease  as  the  large  American  horses. 

The  women  of  this  tribe  deserve  a  word  of  special  mention. 
So  great  is  their  faculty  for  business  that  the  men  rarefy 
venture  upon  a  bargain  without  their  help.  They  are  fine 
seamstresses,  very  good  at  embroidery,  and  excel  in  weaving 
silk  handkerchiefs  with  beautiful  borders  of  blue,  red  and 
purple.  They  produce  the  celebrated  Manila  hat  in  its  best 
form  and  texture,  together  with  many  other  useful  and 
beautiful  articles  of  this  kind.  Their  houses  are  kept  clean, 
and  are  quite  spacious  ;  the  floors  being  made  of  close- 
grained  hard  wood,  which  makes  them  very  desirable  for 
dancing  after  having  been  polished. 

The  Pangasinanes,  dwelling  in  the  province  of  Zambales, 
I,uzon,  number  about  300,000.  They  are  not  as  hard 
working  as  the  Ilocanos,  and  were  subjugated  by  Spain  and 
brought  into  the  established  church.  They  are  a  hardier 
race  than  the  Tagals.  Their  chief  occupation  is  the  cultiva- 
tion of  rice,  which  is  the  lowest  class  of  agriculture  and 
practiced  by  the  poorest  people.  A  little  sugar  is  produced 
by  them,  but  it  is  of  poor  quality.  At  one  time  they 
exported  indigo  and  sapan  wood.  Their  chief  industry  is 
the  manufacture  of  hats,  hundreds  of  thousands  of  which 
have  been  sent  from  Calasias  to  this  country;  they  are  made 
from  "  nito,"  or  grass.  The  mountain  streams  are  washed 
for  gold  by  the  women;  but  only  a  meagre  supply  is  found. 
A  writer  who  has  studied  them  rather  closely  says:  "Their 
civilization  is  only  skin  deep,  and  one  of  their  decided 
characteristics  is  a  propensity  to  abandon  their  villages  and 
take  to  the  mountains,  out  of  reach  of  authority. " 


50  AnnaIvS  of  the  American  Academy 

During  all  the  time  I  was  with  the  advance  guard  of  our  ar- 
mies in  Luzon,  under  Generals  Mc Arthur,  Young  and  Law- 
ton,  I  found  no  people  I  liked  as  well  as  the  Ilocanos.  The 
following  incident  will  show  how  teachable  and  trustworthy 
they  are  :  While  with  the  Fourth  Cavalry  guarding  the 
town  of  Carringlan,  a  mountain  pass  separated  by  many 
miles  from  any  other  command  of  our  army,  two  hundred 
bolo  men  came  in  to  recapture  the  town;  but  they  were  soon 
taken  by  our  men,  disarmed  and  quartered  in  the  village 
church.  By  means  of  interpreters  I  began  to  talk  with  them, 
told  them  of  our  kind  intentions,  and  encouraged  them  to 
hold  religious  services  according  to  their  form.  This  they 
did  regularly  and  devoutly.  Before  two  days  had  passed 
they  were  our  allies.  And  when  fifty  per  cent  of  our  men 
were  taken  ill  with  the  dengue  fever  they  proved  very  val- 
uable and  willing  helpers. 

The  Ilocanos  are  a  hard-working  race  dwelling  in  north- 
western Luzon,  extending  over  the  province  of  Ilocos  Norte, 
Ilocos  Sur  and  La  Union,  and  branching  into  the  surround- 
ing country.  They  are  classed  among  the  domesticated 
natives,  and  have  for  three  centuries  been  under  the  control 
of  the  Catholic  Church,  to  which  they  are  very  devoted. 
They  are  less  inclined  to  insurrection,  and  it  can  safely  be 
said  that  they  have  given  the  authorities  of  our  country  the 
least  trouble.  They  are  very  tractable,  and  will  doubtless 
excel  most  of  the  tribes  of  the  archipelago  when  brought 
under  the  just  administration  to  be  given  by  the  American 
people.  The  Ilocanos  also  make  nets  for  fish  and  for  deer 
and  pigs;  baskets  of  all  sorts,  and  salacots  or  hats. 

They  grow  two  kinds  of  cotton  for  textiles — the  white 
and  the  coyote.  Another  kind,  a  tree  cotton,  from  the 
boboy,  is  only  used  for  stuffing  pillows.  They  extract  oil 
from  the  seeds  of  all  three  kinds.  Like  the  other  natives, 
they  live  principally  on  rice  and  fish,  which  they  capture  in 
large  quantities.  They  have  fine  cattle,  which  they  sell  to 
the  Igorrotes.     It  will  be  noted  that  the  Tinguianes,  on  the 


Semi-Civilized  Tribes  of  the  Philippines       51 

other  hand,  sell  cattle  to  the  Ilocanos.  The  ponies  of  Ilocos 
are  highly  valued  in  Manila,  where  there  is  a  great  demand 
for  them.  They  are  smaller  than  the  ponies  of  other  prov- 
inces, but  are  very  hardy  and  spirited  and  travel  at  a  great 
pace.  Tulisanes  formerly  infested  these  provinces  and  found 
a  read}'  refuge  in  the  mountains  when  pursued  by  the  cua- 
drilleros,  or  village  constables,  who  were  only  armed  with 
bolos,  lances  and  a  few  old  muskets.  But  the  creation  of 
the  civil  guard,  formed  of  picked  officers  and  men,  who  were 
armed  with  Remingtons  and  revolvers,  and  whose  orders 
were,  ' '  Do  not  hesitate  to  shoot, ' '  made  this  business  very 
dangerous,  and  the  three  provinces  now  suffer  little  from 
brigandage. 

Even  in  this  hasty  review  the  Cagayanes  are  worthy  of 
mention.  They  inhabit  the  Babuyanes  and  Batana  Islands, 
and  the  northern  coast  of  Luzon  from  Point  Lacaytacay  to 
Punta  Kscarpada  and  all  the  country  between  the  Rio  Grande 
and  the  summits  of  the  Sierra  Madre  as  far  south  as  Balasig. 
They  are  spoken  of  as  the  finest  race  in  the  islands,  and  as 
having  furnished  the  strongest  resistance  to  the  Spaniards. 
They  were,  however,  early  conquered  and  converted  to 
Christianity. 

Of  all  the  tribes  the  Macabebes  are  best  known  to  the 
Americans,  on  account  of  their  eagerness  at  the  first  oppor- 
tunity to  fight  under  the  Stars  and  Stripes.  Their  territory 
lies  directly  north  of  Manila  Bay  in  the  Province  of  Pam- 
panga.  An  old  feud  existing  between  them  and  the  Tagals 
has  to  this  day  kept  the  tribes  in  bitter  enmity.  This  has 
doubtless  in  a  great  measure  influenced  them  in  taking  up 
arms  with  the  Americans  against  the  Tagals.  They  did 
excellent  service  as  scouts  in  the  advance  made  by  General 
Lawton,  under  the  leadership  of  Major  Batson,  proving 
themselves  fearless  and  efficient.  Many  of  them  having 
been  in  the  Spanish  army  were  already  drilled.  They  have 
proved  themselves  loyal  and  trustworthy,  and  now  constitute 
a  most  efficient  command  known  as  the  Philippine  Cavalry. 


52  Annai<s  of  the  American  Academy 

They  are  somewhat  difficult  to  control  when  once  they  have 
their  enemy  within  their  power,  having  a  propensity  to  loot 
and  to  inflict  cruelties  not  justifiable  according  to  the  rules 
of  war.  They  are  very  enduring  and,  going  barefoot,  can 
excel  the  American  in  mountain  climbing  and  fording  rivers. 
Physically  they  are  a  well-formed  race  and  present  a  fine 
appearance  as  soldiers.  They  are  so  dreaded  by  the  insur- 
gent soldiers  that  the  notification  of  their  approach  is  apt  to 
result  in  a  panic  on  the  part  of  their  enemies.  They  are  an 
agricultural  people  and  have  no  marked  distinguishing 
characteristics,  being  in  many  ways  like  neighboring 
tribes.  The  tribe  could  not  furnish  more  than  2,500  able- 
bodied  soldiers.  The  women  are  very  loyal  to  our  govern- 
ment and  esteem  it  a  privilege  to  give  their  sons  and  hus- 
bands to  our  army.  The  Macabebe  priests  also  have  shown 
loyalty  to  the  Americans.  We  should  not  forgot  what  it 
means  for  this  people  to  take  a  stand  for  us,  surrounded  as 
they  are  with  those  at  enmity  with  us. 

We  speak  of  the  domesticated  natives  in  contradistinction 
to  the  wild  tribes  of  the  mountains  and  the  people  springing 
from  intermarriage  with  them.  The  origin  of  the  former  is 
uncertain.  The  generally  accepted  theory  is  that  they  first 
migrated  from  Madagascar  to  the  Malay  Peninsula.  Some 
trace  their  origin  as  far  as  Patagonia;  others  say  they  de- 
scended from  the  aborigines  of  Chile  and  Peru.  This  idea  is 
rendered  plausible  by  the  fact  that  people  have  been  carried 
westward  by  east  winds  and  currents,  while  there  is  no  record 
of  their  having  been  carried  in  a  contrary  direction  toward 
the  archipelago.  The  most  universally  accepted  theory  is 
that  they  came  from  Milesia  to  these  islands,  and  in  course 
of  time  supplanted  the  aborigines  in  control  of  the  coasts  and 
lowlands.  These  people  number  about  five  millions.  They 
proved  a  most  tractable  race  in  the  hands  of  their 
oppressors. 

A  proper  estimate  of  these  people  cannot  be  formed  by 
seeing  them  in  the  seaport  towns,  where  they  have  been 


Semi- Civ iuzed  Tribes  of  the  Philippines       53 

changed  by  coming  in  contact  with  other  nations.  They  can 
only  be  successfully  studied  by  abiding  with  them  in  the 
interior.  For  instance,  much  of  the  native  population  of 
Manila  has  descended  from  prisoners  released  by  the  Span- 
iards on  the  promise  that  they  would  serve  them  without 
remuneration.  The  natives  of  the  interior  are  a  most  inter- 
esting study  for  the  ethnologist,  ever  varying  in  moods  and 
localities.  In  judging  of  their  character  it  is  only  just  to 
remember  that  with  any  people  violent  oppression  brings  out 
lawless  resistance.  We  cannot  tell  how  far  this  trait  has 
been  developed  by  the  Spaniard,  or  by  the  direct  rays  of 
the  tropical  sun,  which  frequently  causes  the  native  to  excuse 
himself  for  infidelity  or  cruelty  by  saying,  "My  head  was 
hot."  Many  who  have  dealt  with  the  natives  in  the  interior 
have  found  that  confidence  begets  confidence,  and  that  to 
confide  in  them  and  show  them  by  kind  and  just  dealings 
that  they  can  trust  you,  is  to  develop  trustworthiness  in 
them.  Surely  the  teaching  of  the  Spanish  was  especially 
calculated  to  develop  traits  of  suspicion  and  treachery,  and 
even  to  make  such  impression  pre-natal. 

Whether  it  be  a  peculiarity  of  the  race,  or  the  result  of 
education,  it  is  quite  true  of  the  Filipino  that  if  you  "  give 
him  an  inch  he  will  take  an  ell,"  but  when  treated  with  jus- 
tice, tempered  with  kindness,  he  becomes  an  apt  pupil  in 
learning  the  better  way.  In  every  transaction  with  the  Fil- 
ipino one  must  constantly  keep  in  mind  the  disadvantageous 
surroundings  under  which  he  has  become  as  good  as  he  is. 
He  surely  started  with  a  considerable  amount  of  integrity  to 
have  any  left  at  all,  after  more  than  three  centuries  of  cinch 
and  grind  from  a  nation  whose  object  seems  to  have  been  to  get 
all  out  of  their  colony  and  give  back  little  or  nothing.  The 
native  is  not  apt  to  return  anything  he  has  borrowed  unless 
demanded.  He  regards  a  debt  more  as  an  inconvenience 
than  as  an  obligation,  and  will  often,  when  loaded  down 
with  debts,  make  a  great  show  of  riches  to  impress  his  neigh- 
bors.    They  are  fairly  honest,  and  as  a  general  thing  steal 


54  Annai^s  of  the  American  Academy 

only  when  pressed  by  need.  Their  courtesy  approaches  that 
of  the  Japanese.  Often  when  paying  a  visit  to  a  friend  they 
spend  as  much  as  three  minutes  in  complimentary  dialogue 
before  entering.  It  is  considered  a  gross  violation  of  the 
rules  of  etiquette  to  step  over  a  person  while  asleep  on  the 
floor.  They  are  much  opposed  to  awaking  any  one  from 
sleep,  actuated  by  the  idea  that  during  sleep  the  soul  is 
absent  from  the  body,  and  if  one  be  suddenly  awakened  it 
might  not  have  time  to  return.  For  this  reason  a  native, 
when  told  to  awaken  you  at  a  certain  hour,  is  loath  to  do  it, 
and  goes  about  it  with  much  caution.  Often  when  calling 
upon  a  person  the  servant  tells  you  he  is  asleep,  that  is  con- 
sidered sufficient  reason  either  for  you  to  wait  or  call  later 
on.  The  foreigner  soon  finds  that  it  is  best  for  him,  on 
account  of  climate,  to  fall  into  the  habit  of  the  native  in 
enjoying  a  siesta  from  twelve  to  two  o'clock  daily. 

The  clashing  between  Europeans  and  the  natives  is  often 
caused  by  the  difference  in  mental  cast  and  impulse,  and  if 
one  constantly  makes  allowance  for  this  he  will  soon  find 
that  he  can  get  along  very  well  with  them.  One  finds  in 
the  native  a  lack  of  sympathy.  The  Tagalog,  however,  is 
more  sympathetic  than  the  Visayan,  who  usually  exhibits  a 
frigid  indifference  to  the  misfortunes  and  sorrows  of  others, 
bearing  his  own  with  great  composure.  Mr.  Foreman  states 
that  wherever  he  has  been  he  has  found  the  mothers  teach- 
ing their  children  to  regard  the  Europeans  as  demoniacal 
beings,  or  at  least  as  dreaded  enemies.  If  a  child  cries  it  is 
hushed  by  the  exclamation  "  Castilia  "  (European).  This 
dread  for  the  approach  of  the  European  was  intensified 
in  the  case  of  Americans  by  the  accounts  given  the  natives  by 
the  Spanish.  The  native  in  the  interior,  when  approached 
by  the  American  soldier,  fell  upon  his  knees  and  begged  for 
mercy,  expecting  to  be  at  once  put  to  death,  and  could  hardly 
be  induced  to  arise.  When  ill,  they  could  not  be  persuaded 
to  take  medicine  from  the  hands  of  the  American  soldier 
until  convinced  that  the  surgeon  did  not  mean  to  poison 


Semi- Civilized  Tribes  of  the  Philippines       55 

them,  by  his  taking  in  their  presence  the  same  kind  of  med- 
icine he  offered  them.  When  our  soldiers  would  approach  a 
native  mother  with  her  children  she  would  gather  them 
around  her,  and  the  whole  group  fall  down  trembling  and 
close  their  eyes  that  they  might  meet  their  death  without 
seeing  the  supposed  murderers.  It  will  take  time  to  clear 
away  these  misunderstandings,  but  when  once  they  give 
way  to  the  truth,  and  the  native  sees  for  himself  and  believes 
in  the  kindness  and  justice  that  exist  for  him  in  the  American 
heart,  it  will  be  a  great  step  toward  a  peaceful  relationship 
between  the  two  nations. 

I,ike  most  Orientals,  the  Filipino  is  more  imitative  than 
original,  and  readily  changes  from  one  occupation  to  another. 
His  cruelty  to  animals  is  manifest  in  all  his  dealings  with 
them,  and  he  is  generally  unfeeling  to  a  fallen  foe.  The 
mutilation  of  a  vanquished  enemy  is  a  common  occurrence. 
He  is  credulous  and  easily  imposed  upon,  transmits  a  report 
with  amazing  rapidity,  and  often  fails  to  keep  a  secret;  not  in- 
clined to  joke,  he  is  quite  festive  in  his  nature.  If  angered  he 
does  not  show  it,  but  calmly  awaits  his  time  for  revenge. 
If  convinced  by  his  own  conscience  of  his  wrongdoing  he 
will  receive  punishment  without  the  least  resentment,  but  if 
not  convinced  of  his  guilt  he  cherishes  his  wrath  and  awaits 
opportunity  for  resentment.  They,  as  a  general  thing,  do 
not  regard  lying  as  a  sin,  but  rather  as  a  legitimate  and  cun- 
ning device  which  should  be  resorted  to  whenever  it  will 
serve  the  purpose.  This  same  trait  is  found  among  the 
Spanish  in  the  Philippines.  Whether  the  native  receives  it 
by  instruction  or  inheritance  is  a  question.  The  priests  say 
that  the  natives  carry  their  disregard  for  the  truth  even  into 
the  confessional.     Both  sexes  are  very  fond  of  litigation. 

Of  the  more  advanced  races,  the  Tagalog  has  made 
greater  progress  in  civilization  than  the  Visayan  of  the 
south.  This  is  due  most  likely  to  the  fact  that  they  have 
been  brought  more  into  contact  with  the  European.  They 
also  exceed  the  Visayans  in   disinterested   hospitality,   and 


56  Annaxs  of  the  American  Academy 

are  more  cheerful  and  pliant  where  they  have  not  been 
brought  under  the  influence  of  the  bitter  spirit  of  rebellion. 
The  tribes  of  Northern  Luzon  are  perhaps  the  most  tract- 
able. The  natives  of  the  southern  islands  are  more  resent- 
ful, conceited,  unpolished,  and  manifest  a  sullen  defiance, 
which  is  not  found  so  much  in  their  northern  neighbors. 
They,  however,  are  more  self-reliant  and  manifest  quite  as 
much  or  more  strength  of  character  than  the  Tagalogs,  and 
are  not  so  emotional  and  easily  influenced.  When  once  you 
win  their  confidence  they  are  likely  to  be  more  stable  in  their 
friendship.  The  Visayans  exceed  the  Tagalogs  in  avarici- 
ousness  and  fondness  for  display,  especially  in  the  line  of 
jewelry.  The  women,  as  a  rule,  are  very  reserved,  especially 
in  the  south,  but  throughout  the  archipelago  they  maintain 
a  high  standard  of  morals.  Infidelity  on  the  part  of  the  wife 
is  rarely  found. 

The  Visayans  are  the  people  inhabiting  the  six  islands 
lying  between  Luzon  and  Mindanao,  known  as  the  Panay, 
Negros,  Cubu,  Bohol,  Leyte  and  Samar,  and  quite  a  number 
of  smaller  islands.  They  differ  in  many  respects  from  their 
northern  and  southern  neighbors,  and  have  made  less  pro- 
gress in  civilization  than  the  Tagals.  The  cold  hospitality 
of  the  Visayan,  often  tempered  with  avarice,  forms  a  sharp 
contrast  with  his  more  open-hearted  Tagal  brother.  The 
Visayan  women  care  far  less  to  become  acquainted  with  a 
stranger,  especially  if  he  be  a  European.  When  such  a  one 
calls  at  their  home  they  will  saunter  off  and  hide;  however, 
if  the  caller  be  well  known,  they  are  quite  genial.  If  met 
by  chance  they  are  not  likely  to  return  a  salutation,  and  they 
seldom  indulge  in  a  smile  before  strangers,  or  have  conver- 
sation with  them.  They  have  had  no  advantages  in  instruc- 
tion beyond  that  of  music  and  the  lives  of  the  saints.  They 
impress  the  traveler  with  an  insipidity  of  character  which 
does  not  at  all  correspond  with  the  air  of  superiority  and 
disdain  they  exhibit. 

It  must,  however,  be  observed  that  these  characteristics 


Semi- Civilized  Tribes  op  the  Philippines       57 

apply  to  the  Visayans  in  the  interior  more  than  to  those  in 
the  coast  towns,  where  they  have  been  brought  in  contact 
with  foreigners  and  are  decidedly  more  genial.  But  it  must 
be  acknowledged  that  the  Visayan  is  more  tenacious  of  the 
customs  of  his  forefathers  and  slower  in  taking  up  with  new 
ideas  and  customs  than  the  Tagalog.  This  is  not  altogether 
a  racial  peculiarity  but  a  result  of  not  being  geographically 
situated  so  as  to  be  brought  in  contact  with  the  outside 
world,  as  are  their  northern  neighbors.  This  conservative 
trait  of  Visayan  character  finds  an  illustration  in  the  follow- 
ing narrative:  A  wealthy  European  merchant  had  married  a 
beautiful  Visayan  wife  and  taken  her  to  a  home  elegantly 
furnished  according  to  European  standards.  But  the 
Visayan  beauty  found  such  surroundings  uncongenial,  and 
it  was  with  difficulty  that  she  could  be  induced  to  put  in  an 
appearance  when  European  visitors  were  to  be  entertained. 
She  would  often  decline  to  sit  with  them  at  the  table,  prefer- 
ring to  sit  on  the  kitchen  floor  and  eat,  after  the  custom  of 
her  people.  The  Tagal  women  are  very  apt  imitators  of 
European  customs,  and  often  make  ludicrous  efforts  in  this 
direction.  The  same  contrast  is  presented  by  the  men  of 
the  two  races. 

The  importance  of  the  Visayan  people  is  destined  to 
increase,  not  only  on  account  of  the  great  resources  and  fer- 
tility of  the  islands  they  inhabit,  but  on  account  of  their  emi- 
gration to  Mindanao,  where  any  amount  of  rich  land  awaits 
the  coming  of  the  husbandman.  These  people  are  sure  to 
be  a  great  factor  in  the  development  of  resources  and  the 
improvement  of  opportunities  to  be  found  nowhere  else  in  the 
world.  Owing  to  the  unprogressive  spirit  of  the  Spanish  no 
census  of  these  people  has  been  taken  since  1877,  at  which 
time  they  were  found  to  number  over  two  millions,  the 
population  of  Panay  being  the  largest.  The  Visayan 
Islands  contain  fewer  heathen  than  any  other  part  of  the 
Philippines.  The  above  estimate  of  the  population  of  the 
Visayan   Islands  does  not  include   the  Negritos,  Munaos 


58  AnNAI<S   OF  THE  AMERICAN   ACADEMY 

and  Carolanos,  wild  tribes  whose  numbers  are  increased 
by  a  number  of  fugitives  from  justice  and  others  who  are 
inclined  to  a  savage  life  and  given  to  the  love  of  plunder. 
The  Province  of  Iloilo  is  said  to  contain  half  a  million  people 
of  the  domesticated  native  type.  The  mountains  of  the 
Visayan  Islands,  not  being  as  numerous  or  high,  do  not 
furnish  the  same  refuge  for  the  wild  tribes  as  those  of 
Northern  Luzon,  therefore  these  tribes  are  fewer  in  number. 

The  most  numerous  and,  after  the  Tagals,  the  most 
important  race  in  the  Philippines  is  that  branch  of  the 
Visayan,  formerly  called  Pintados  or  painted  men,  from  the 
blue  painting  or  tattooing  which  was  prevalent  at  the  time 
of  the  conquest.  They  form  the  mass  of  the  inhabitants  of 
the  islands  called  Visayas,  and  of  some  others. 

Another  branch  of  the  Visayans,  distinguished  by  a  darker 
color  and  by  a  curliness  of  the  hair,  suggesting  some  Negrito 
mixture,  occupies  the  Calamianes  and  Cuyos  Islands  and 
the  northern  coasts  of  Paragua  or  Palawan  as  far  as  Bahia 
Honda. 

In  appearance  the  Visayans  differ  somewhat  from  the 
Tagals,  having  a  greater  resemblance  to  the  Malays  of 
Borneo  and  Malacca.  The  men  wear  their  hair  longer  than 
the  Tagals,  and  the  women  wear  a  patadion  instead  of  a 
saya  and  tapis.  The  patadion  is  a  piece  of  cloth  a  yard 
wide  and  over  two  yards  long,  the  ends  of  which  are  sewed 
together.  The  wearer  steps  into  it  and  wraps  it  around  the 
figure  from  the  waist  downward,  doubling  it  over  in  front 
into  a  wide  fold  and  tucking  it  in  securely  at  the  waist. 
The  saya  is  a  skirt  tied  at  the  waist  with  a  tape,  and  the 
tapis  is  a  breadth  of  dark  cloth,  silk  or  satin,  doubled  round 
the  waist  over  the  saya. 

In  disposition  they  are  less  sociable  than  the  Tagals,  and 
less  clean  in  their  person  and  clothing.  They  have  a 
language  of  their  own,  and  there  are  several  dialects  of  it. 
The  basis  of  their  food  is  rice,  with  which  they  often  mix 
maize.     They  flavor  their  food  with  red  pepper  to  a  greater 


Semi-Civiuzed  Tribes  op  the  Philippines       59 

extent  than  the  Tagals.  They  are  expert  fishermen,  and 
consume  large  quantities  of  fish.  In  smoking  and  chewing 
betel  they  resemble  the  other  races  of  the  islands.  They 
are  great  gamblers,  and  take  delight  in  cock-fighting. 
They  are  fond  of  hunting,  and  kill  numbers  of  wild  pig 
and  deer.  They  cut  the  flesh  of  the  latter  into  strips  and 
diy  it  in  the  sun,  after  which  it  will  keep  a  long  time.  It  is 
useful  to  take  as  provision  on  a  journey,  but  it  requires 
good  teeth  to  get  through  it. 

The  Visayans  build  a  number  of  canoes,  paros,  barotos, 
and  vintas.  They  are  very  confident  on  the  water,  putting 
to  sea  in  their  ill-found  and  badly-equipped  craft  with  great 
assurance,  and  do  not  come  to  grief  as  often  as  might  be 
expected.  Their  houses  are  constructed  similarly  to  those 
of  the  other  inhabitants  of  the  littoral. 

Early  writers  accuse  the  Visayan  women  of  great  sensu- 
ality and  unbounded  immorality,  and  give  details  of  some 
very  curious  customs  which  are  unsuitable  for  general  pub- 
lication. However,  the  customs  to  which  I  refer  have  long 
become  obsolete  among  the  Visayans,  although  still  existing 
among  some  of  the  wilder  tribes  in  Borneo.  The  Visayan 
women  are  very  prolific,  many  having  borne  a  dozen  children, 
but  infant  mortality  is  high,  and  they  rear  but  a  small  portion 
of  them.  The  men  are  less  sober  than  the  Tagals;  they 
manufacture  and  consume  large  quantities  of  strong  drink. 
They  are  not  fond  of  the  Tagals,  and  a  Visayan  regiment 
would  not  hesitate  to  fire  upon  them  if  ordered.  In  fact, 
the  two  tribes  look  upon  each  other  as  foreigners.  When 
discovered  by  the  Spaniards  they  were  to  a  great  extent 
civilized  and  organized  in  a  feudal  system.  Tomas  de  Comyn 
formed  a  very  favorable  opinion  of  them.  He  writes:  "  Both 
men  and  women  are  well  mannered  and  of  a  good  disposition, 
of  better  condition  and  nobler  behavior  than  those  of  the 
island  of  L,uzon  and  others  adjacent." 

They  had  learned  much  from  Arab  and  Bornean  adven- 
turers, especially  from  the  former,  whose  superior  physique. 


6o  Annaes  of  the  American  Academy 

learning  and  sanctity,  as  coming  from  the  country  of  trie 
prophet,  made  them  acceptable  suitors  for  the  hands  of  the 
daughters  of  the  rajahs  or  petty  kings.  They  brought 
with  them  the  doctrines  of  Islam,  which  had  begun  to 
make  some  converts  before  the  Spanish  discovery.  The  old 
Visayan  religion  was  not  unlike  that  of  the  Tagals.  They 
called  their  idols  Dinatas  instead  of  Anitos.  Their  marriage 
customs  were  not  very  different  from  those  of  the  Tagals. 

The  ancestors  of  the  Visayans  were  converted  to  Christi- 
anity at  or  soon  after  the  Spanish  conquest.  They  have 
thus  been  Christians  for  over  three  centuries,  and  in  constant 
war  with  the  Mohammedan  pirates  of  Mindanao  and  Sulu, 
and  with  the  Sea  Dayaks  of  Borneo.  However,  in  some 
localities  they  still  show  a  strong  fondness  for  witchcraft, 
and  practice  secret  heathen  rites,  notwithstanding  the  vigi- 
lance of  the  parish  priests. 

The  Moros  now  extend  over  the  whole  of  Mindanao  and 
the  Sultanate  of  Sulu,  which  comprises  the  Sulu  Island 
(thirty-four  miles  long  from  east  to  west  and  twelve  miles 
in  the  broadest  part  from  north  to  south)  and  about  one 
hundred  and  forty  others,  more  than  half  of  which  are  in- 
habited. The  population  (according  to  Mr.  Foreman)  of 
the  Sulu  Sultanate  alone  is  about  110,000,  including  free 
people,  slaves,  and  some  20,000  men  at  arms  under  orders 
of  the  Dattos.  The  domains  of  the  Sultan  reach  westward 
as  far  as  Borneo.  The  Sultan  of  Sulu  is  also  feudal  lord  of 
two  vassal  Sultanates  in  Mindanao  Island.  Only  a  small 
coast  district  of  this  island  was  really  under  Spanish  empire, 
although  Spain  claimed  suzerainty  over  all  the  territory 
subject  to  the  Sultan  of  Sulu,  by  virtue  of  an  old  treaty, 
which  was  never  entirely  carried  out.  There  is  also  a  half- 
caste  branch  of  Moros  in  the  southern  half  of  Palauan 
Island  (Paragua)  of  a  very  peaceful  nature,  nominally  under 
the  rule  of  the  Sultan  of  Sulu.  The  United  States  forces 
have  not  yet  been  sent  to  these  islands.  They  were  gratui- 
tously ceded  to  Spain  by  the  Sultan  about  1730  at  the  request 


Semi- Civilized  Tribes  of  the  Philippines       6i 

of  the  Spaniards.  The  only  Spanish  possession  at  the  time 
of  the  evacuation  was  the  colony  of  Puerta  Princesa  on  the 
east  coast,  which  is  a  good  harbor  and  affords  a  fine  outlet 
for  the  products  of  the  fertile  land  surrounding  it. 

The  Moros  also  inhabit  the  Tawi  Tawi  Islands,  the  most 
southerly  of  the  Sulu  group,  lying  only  five  degrees  north 
of  the  equator.  The  Spanish  assaulted  these  islands  in 
1 75 1  under  a  decree  ordering  them  "  to  exterminate  all  the 
Mussulmans  with  fire  and  sword,  to  extinguish  the  foe,  burn 
all  that  was  combustible,  destroy  the  crops,  desolate  their 
cultivated  lands,  make  captives  and  recover  Christian  slaves. ' ' 
The  captain  and  his  men  went  ashore,  but  their  retreat  was 
cut  off  and  they  were  all  slain.  The  officer  in  command  of 
the  expedition  was  so  discouraged  that  he  resigned.  The 
entire  assault  proved  a  great  failure,  and  shows  that  the 
inhabitants  of  these  islands  possess  the  same  warlike  traits 
as  the  Moros  of  the  other  islands.  The  Moros  were  for 
centuries  among  the  sea  pirates  of  history,  the  most  uncon- 
querable. They  defied  the  Spanish  sailing  men-of-war  with 
their  light  "  prahus  "  and  "  vintas  "  by  keeping  in  the 
shallow  water,  where  they  could  not  be  approached,  and 
awaiting  opportunity  to  cluster  around  a  solitary  man-of- 
war  and  take  her  by  boarding.  It  was  the  introduction  of 
steam  gunboats  in  i860  that  broke  the  power  of  the  Moro 
pirate  fleets.  Their  towns,  like  the  city  of  Brunei,  are 
mostly  built  in  the  water,  and  have  bamboo  bridges,  which 
can  be  removed,  to  connect  them  with  the  shore.  Their 
"cottas,"  or  forts,  are  built  on  rising  ground  near  by  and 
protected  by  reefs  that  make  the  approach  by  water  diffi- 
cult. The  stockades  are  made  of  trunks  of  trees;  some 
of  their  walls  being  twenty- four  feet  thick  and  thirty  feet 
high,  are  defended  by  brass  and  iron  guns.  An  attempt  to 
storm  these  cottas  is  met  by  the  Moros,  who  mount  the  ram- 
parts and  make  a  brave  defence,  firing  grape  from  their 
cannon  until  the  enemy  comes  near  enough,  when  they  hurl 
their  spears  upon  them  from  a  surprising  distance  and  with 


62  Annaw  of  the  American  Academy 

accurate  aim,  manfully  fighting  till  they  drive  off  their 
assailants  or  die  in  the  attempt.  When  once  they  have  put 
their  enemies  to  flight  they  fall  upon  them  in  a  dreadful 
hand-to-hand  conflict  in  which  quarter  is  neither  asked  nor 
given. 

If  the  history  of  the  Spanish-Moro  wars  were  written  it 
would  be  of  great  interest  and  would  show  many  a  Homeric 
combat.  It  must  be  said  of  the  Spanish  soldiers  that  they 
meet  their  dreadful  foes  with  equal  courage.  Sometimes  the 
priests  with  crucifix  in  hand  would  bravely  lead  their  half- 
savage  converts  against  their  oppressors  amid  showers  of 
spears  and  bullets.  The  head  of  a  priest  was  considered  a 
great  prize  by  the  Moro  warriors.  The  soil  of  Mindanao  has 
been  literally  drenched  in  the  blood  of  Moro,  Spanish  and 
native  in  this  long-drawn-out  and  awful  conflict  between  the 
Cross  and  the  Crescent.  The  malaria  of  the  Moro  land 
seems  to  fight  for  its  inhabitants  by  exempting  them  from  its 
attacks  and  setting  furiously  upon  all  others  who  invade  the 
mangrove  swamps  and  flooded  jungle.  In  all  justice  it  must 
be  said  that  not  superior  valor,  but  the  invention  of  modern 
weapons  of  warfare,  checked  the  ravages  of  the  Moro,  and 
that  the  Spanish  opened  the  way  and  made  possible  peaceful 
American  occupation.  It  is  strange  but  true  that  to-day  a 
man  may  carry  the  American  flag  with  greater  safety  through 
the  land  of  the  Moros  than  through  any  other  part  of  the 
Philippine  Archipelago.  Mr.  Sawyer  in  his  new  book  gives 
the  following  interesting  statements:  ( '  It  is  a  striking  instance 
of  the  irony  of  fate  that,  just  as  modern  weapons  have 
turned  the  scale  in  favor  of  the  Spaniards  in  this  long 
struggle  and  brought  the  Moros  within  measurable  distance 
of  subjection,  when  only  one  more  blow  required  to  be 
struck,  Spain's  oriental  empire  should  suddenly  vanish  in 
the  smoke  of  Dewey's  guns  and  her  flag  disappear  forever 
from  battlements  where  (except  for  the  short  interval  of 
British  occupation,  1762-63)  it  has  proudly  waved  through 
storm  and  sunshine   for   three   hundred   and  twenty-eight 


Semi-Civilized  Tribes  of  the  Philippines       63 

years.  Such,  however,  is  the  case;  and  it  now  falls  to  the 
United  States  to  complete  the  task  of  centuries,  to  stretch 
out  a  protecting  hand  over  the  Christian  natives  of  Mindanao, 
and  to  suppress  the  last  remains  of  a  slave-raiding  system  as 
ruthless,  as  sanguinary,  and  as  devastating  as  the  annals  of 
the  world  can  show." 


PART  II:  THE  CAUSES  OF  RACE  SUPERI- 
ORITY. ANNUAL  ADDRESS.  BY  DR.  ED- 
WARD A.  ROSS,  PROFESSOR  OF  SOCIOL- 
OGY IN  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  NEBRASKA 


(65) 


THE  CAUSES  OF  RACE  SUPERIORITY. 

Annual  address  by  Dr.  Edward  A.  Ross, 
Professor  of  Sociology  in  the  University  of  Nebraska. 

The  superiorities  that,  at  a  given  time,  one  people  may 
display  over  other  peoples,  are  not  necessarily  racial.  Physi- 
cal inferiorities  that  disappear  as  the  peoples  are  equalized 
in  diet  and  dwelling;  mental  inferiorities  that  disappear  when 
the  peoples  are  levelled  up  in  respect  to  culture  and  means  of 
education,  are  due  not  to  race  but  to  condition,  not  to  blood  but 
to  surroundings.  In  accounting  for  disparities  among  peoples 
there  are,  in  fact,  two  opposite  errors  into  which  we  may 
fall.  There  is  the  equality  fallacy  inherited  from  the  earlier 
thought  of  the  last  century,  which  belittles  race  differences 
and  has  a  robust  faith  in  the  power  of  intercourse  and  school 
instruction  to  lift  up  a  backward  folk  to  the  level  of  the 
best.  Then  there  is  the  counter  fallacy,  grown  up  since 
Darwin,  which  exaggerates  the  race  factor  and  regards  the 
actual  differences  of  peoples  as  hereditary  and  fixed. 

Just  now  the  latter  error  is,  perhaps,  the  more  besetting. 
At  a  time  when  race  is  the  watchword  of  the  vulgar  and 
when  sciolists  are  pinning  their  faith  to  breed,  we  of  all 
men  ought  to  beware  of  it.  We  Americans  wTho  have  so 
often  seen  the  children  of  underfed,  stunted,  scrub  immi- 
grants match  the  native  American  in  brain  and  brawn,  in 
wit  and  grit,  ought  to  realize  how  much  the  superior  effec- 
tiveness of  the  latter  is  due  to  social  conditions.  Keleti, 
from  his  investigations  in  Hungary,  has  come  to  the  conclu- 
sion that  in  most  of  the  communes  there  the  people  have 
less  to  eat  than  is  necessary  to  live  and  work,  the  result  being 
alcoholism,  weakness,  disease  and  early  death.  Atwater, 
on  the  other  hand,  has  found  that  the  average  wage- worker 
in  New  England  consumes  more  food  than  health  requires. 

(67) 


68  Annals  of  the  American  Academy. 

What  a  host  of  consequences  issue  from  this  one  primary 
contrast  ! 

A  generation  ago,  in  the  first  enthusiasm  over  the  marvels 
of  heredity,  we  were  taught  that  one  race  is  monotheistic, 
another  has  an  affinity  for  polytheism.  One  race  is  tem- 
peramentally aristocratic,  while  another  is  by  instinct  demo- 
cratic. One  race  is  innovating  and  radical,  another  is  by 
nature  conservative.  But  it  is  impossible  to  characterize 
races  in  respect  to  such  large  complex  traits.  A  keener 
analysis  connects  these  great  historical  contrasts  with  a  num- 
ber of  slight  specific  differences  in  body  or  temperament.  For 
example,  four  diverse  traits  of  the  greatest  social  importance, 
namely,  progressiveness,  the  spirit  of  adventure,  migrancy 
and  the  disposition  to  flock  to  cities,  can  be  traced  to  a 
courageous  confidence  in  the  unknown  coupled  with  the 
high  plrysical  tone  that  calls  for  action.  Similarly,  if  we 
may  believe  Signor  Ferrero,  of  two  equally  gifted  races  the 
one  that  is  the  less  sensual  will  be  inferior  in  aesthetic  output, 
less  apt  to  cross  with  lower  types,  more  loyal  to  the  idea  of 
duty,  better  adapted  to  monotonous  factory  labor,  and  more 
inclined  to  the  Protestant  form  of  religion.  It  is  only  by 
establishing  fixed,  specific  differences  of  this  kind  that  we 
can  hope  to  explain  those  grand  race  contrasts  that  enchant 
the  historian. 

The  first  cause  of  race  superiority  to  which  I  invite  your 
attention  is  a  physiological  trait,  namely,  climatic  adaptability . 
Just  now  it  is  a  grave  question  whether  the  flourishing  and 
teeming  peoples  of  the  North  Temperate  zone  can  provide 
outlets  for  their  surplus  population  in  the  rich  but  unde- 
veloped lands  of  the  tropics.  Their  superiority,  economic 
and  military,  over  the  peoples  under  the  vertical  sun  is 
beyond  cavil.  But  can  they  assert  and  profit  by  this  supe- 
riority save  by  imposing  on  the  natives  of  the  tropics  the 
odious  and  demoralizing  servile  relation?  Can  the  white 
man  work  and  multiply  in  the  tropics,  or  will  his  role  be 
limited  to  commercial  and  industrial  exploitation  at  a  safe 


The  Causes  of  Race  Superiority.  69 

distance  by  means  of  a  changing,  male  contingent  of  soldiers, 
officials,  business  agents,  planters  and  overseers? 

The  answer  is  not  yet  sure,  but  the  facts  bearing  on 
acclimatization  are  not  comforting  to  our  race.  Immunity 
from  the  fevers  that  waste  men  in  hot,  humid  climates  seems 
to  be  in  inverse  ratio  to  energy.  The  French  are  more  suc- 
cessful in  tropical  settlement  than  the  Germans  or  the 
English.  The  Spanish,  Portuguese  and  Italians  surpass  the 
French  in  almost  equal  measure.  When  it  comes  to  settling 
Africa,  instead  of  merely  exploring  or  subduing  it,  the 
peoples  may  unexpectedly  change  their  roles.  With  all  their 
energy  and  their  numbers  the  Anglo-Saxons  appear  to  be 
physiologically  inelastic,  and  incapable  of  making  of  Guiana 
or  the  Philippines  a  home  such  as  they  have  made  in  New 
Zealand  or  Minnesota.  In  the  tropics  their  very  virtues — 
their  push,  their  uncompromising  standards,  their  aversion 
to  intermarriage  with  the  natives — are  their  destruction. 

Ominous,  on  the  other  hand,  is  the  extraordinary  power  of 
accommodation  enjoyed  by  the  Mongolians.  Says  Professor 
Ripley :  ' '  The  Chinese  succeed  in  Guiana  where  the  white 
man  cannot  live;  and  they  thrive  from  Siberia  where  the 
mean  temperature  is  below  freezing,  to  Singapore  on  the 
equator."  There  are  even  some  who  believe  that  the 
Chinaman  is  destined  to  dispossess  the  Malay  in  south- 
western Asia  and  the  islands  of  the  Pacific,  and  the  Indian 
in  the  tropical  parts  of  South  America. 

There  is,  indeed,  such  a  thing  as  acclimatization;  but  this 
is  virtually  the  creation  at  a  frightful  cost  of  a  new  race 
variety  by  climatic  selection.  We  may  therefore  regard 
his  lack  of  adaptability  as  a  handicap  which  the  white  man 
must  ever  bear  in  competing  with  black,  yellow,  or  brown 
men.  His  sciences  and  his  inventions  give  him  only  a  tem- 
porary advantage,  for,  as  the  facilities  for  diffusion  increase, 
they  must  pass  to  all.  Even  his  educational  and  political 
institutions  will  spread  wherever  they  are  suitable.  All 
precedence  founded  on  the  possession  of  magazine  rifles,  or 


70  Annai<s  of  the  American  Academy. 

steam,  or  the  press,  or  the  Christian  religion,  must  end  as 
these  elements  merge  into  one  all-embracing,  everywhere 
diffused,  cosmopolitan  culture.  Even  the  advantage  con- 
ferred upon  a  race  by  closer  political  cohesion,  or  earlier 
development  of  the  state,  cannot  last.  Could  we  run  the 
coming  centuries  through  a  kinetoscope,  we  should  see  all 
these  things  as  mere  clothes.  For,  in  the  last  analysis,  it  is 
solely  on  its  persistent  physiological  and  psychological  quali- 
ties that  the  ultimate  destinies  of  a  race  depend. 

The  next  truth  to  which  I  invite  your  attention  is,  that 
one  race  may  surpass  another  in  energy.  The  average  of  indi- 
vidual energy  is  not  a  fixed  race  attribute,  for  new  varieties 
are  constantly  being  created  by  migration.  The  voluntary, 
unassisted  migration  of  individuals  to  lands  of  opportunity 
tends  always  to  the  upbuilding  of  highly  energetic  commu- 
nities and  peoples.  To  the  wilderness  go,  not  the  brainiest 
or  noblest  or  highest  bred,  but  certainly  the  strongest  and 
the  most  enterprising.  The  weakling  and  the  sluggard 
stay  at  home,  or,  if  they  are  launched  into  the  new  condi- 
tions, they  soon  go  under.  The  Boers  are  reputed  to  be  of 
finer  physique  than  their  Dutch  congeners.  In  America, 
before  the  days  of  exaggerated  immigration,  the  immigrants 
were  physically  taller  than  the  people  from  which  they 
sprang,  the  difference  amounting  in  some  instances  to  an 
average  of  more  than  an  inch.  By  measurements  taken 
during  the  Civil  War  the  Scotch  in  America  were  found  to 
exceed  their  countrymen  by  two  inches.  Moreover,  the 
recruits  hailing  from  other  states  than  those  in  which  they 
had  been  born  were  generally  taller  than  those  who  had  not 
changed  their  residence.  The  Kentuckians  and  the  Texans 
have  become  proverbial  for  stature,  while  the  surprising 
tallness  of  the  ladies  who  will  be  found  shopping,  of  an  after- 
noon, on  Kearney  street  in  San  Francisco,  testifies  to  the 
bigness  of  the  "forty-niners."  Comparative  weights  tell 
the  same  tale.  Of  the  recruits  in  our  Civil  War,  the  New 
Euglanders  weighed  140  pounds,  the  Middle  State  men  141 


The  Causes  of  Race  Superiority  71 

pounds,  the  Ohians  and  Indianans  145  pounds,  and  the 
Kentuckians  150.  Conversely,  where,  as  in  Sardinia,  the 
population  is  the  leavings  of  continued  emigration,  the 
stature  is  extraordinarily  low. 

This  principle  that  repeated  migrations  tend  to  the  crea- 
tion of  energetic  races  of  men,  opens  up  enchanting  vistas  of 
explanation  in  the  jungle  of  history.  Successive  waves  of 
conquest  breaking  over  a  land  like  Sicily  or  India  may 
signify  that  a  race,  once  keyed  up  to  a  high  pitch  of  energy 
by  gradual  migration  from  its  ancient  seats,  tends  to  run 
down  as  soon  as  such  beneficent  selections  are  interrupted 
by  success,  and  settlement  in  a  new  home.  Cankered  by  a 
long  quiet  it  falls  a  prey  in  a  few  centuries  to  some  other 
people  that  has  likewise  been  keyed  up  by  migration. 

Again,  this  principle  may  account  for  the  fact  that  those 
branches  of  a  race  achieve  the  most  brilliant  success  which 
have  wandered  the  farthest  from  their  ancestral  home.  Of 
the  Mongols  that  borrowed  the  old  Babylonian  culture,  those 
who  pushed  across  Asia  to  the  Yellow  Sea,  have  risen  the 
highest.  The  Arabs  and  Moors  that  skirted  Africa  and 
won  a  home  in  far-away  Spain,  developed  the  most  brilliant 
of  the  Saracenic  civilizations.  Hebrews,  Dorians,  Quirites, 
Rajputs,  Hovas  were  far  invaders.  No  communities  in 
classic  times  flourished  like  the  cities  in  Asia  created  by  the 
overflow  from  Greece.  Nowhere  under  the  Czar  are  there 
such  vigorous,  progressive  communities  as  in  Siberia.  By 
the  middle  of  this  century,  perhaps,  the  Russian  on  the 
Yenesei  or  the  Amur  will  be  known  for  his  ' '  push ' '  and 
' '  hustle  "  as  is  to-day  the  American  on  Lake  Michigan  or 
Puget  Sound.  It  is  perhaps  on  this  principle  that  the  men 
who  made  their  way  to  the  British  Isles  have  shown  them- 
selves the  most  masterful  and  achieving  of  the  Germanic 
race ;  while  their  offshoots  in  America  and  Australia,  in 
spite  of  some  mixture,  show  the  highest  level  of  indi- 
vidual efficiency  found  in  any  people  of  the  Anglo-Saxon 
breed.     Even  in  America  there  is  a  difference  between  the 


72  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

East  and  the  West.  The  listlessness  and  social  decay- 
noticeable  in  many  of  the  rural  communities  and  old  historic 
towns  on  the  Atlantic  slope,  are  due,  no  doubt,  to  the  loss 
of  their  more  energetic  members  to  the  rising  cities  and  to 
the  West. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  the  form  of  society  which  a  race 
adopts  is  potent  to  paralyze  or  to  release  its  energy.  In  this 
respect  Americans  are  especially  fortunate,  for  their  energies 
are  stimulated  to  the  utmost  by  democracy.  I  refer  not  to 
popular  government,  but  to  the  fact  that  with  us  social  status 
depends  little  on  birth  and  much  on  personal  success.  I 
will  not  deny  that  money,  not  merit,  is  frequently  the  test  of 
social  standing,  and  that  Titania  is  often  found  kissing  "the 
fair  long  ears  "  of  some  Bottom  ;  but  the  commercial  spirit, 
even  if  it  cannot  lend  society  nobility  or  worth,  certainly 
encourages  men  to  strive. 

Where  there  is  no  rank  or  title  or  monarch  to  consecrate 
the  hereditary  principle,  the  capillarity  of  society  is  great, 
and  ambition  is  whetted  to  its  keenest  edge.  For  it  is  hope 
not  need  that  animates  men.  Set  ladders  before  them  and 
they  will  climb  until  their  heart-strings  snap. 

Without  a  social  ladder,  without  infection  from  a  leisure 
class  that  keys  up  its  standard  of  comfort,  a  body  of  yeomen 
settling  in  a  new  and  fertile  land  will  be  content  with 
simplicity  and  rude  plenty.  A  certain  sluggishness  prevails 
now  among  the  Boers,  as  it  prevailed  among  the  first  settlers 
beyond  the  Alleghenies.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  there 
is  a  social  ladder,  but  it  is  occupied  by  those  of  a  military  or 
hereditary  position,  as  in  the  Spanish  communities  of  the 
southwest,  there  is  likewise  no  stimulus  to  energy.  But  if 
vigorous  men  form  new  communities  in  close  enough  touch 
with  rich  and  old  communities  to  accept  their  exacting 
standards  of  comfort,  without  at  the  same  time  accepting 
their  social  ranking,  each  man  has  the  greatest  possible 
incentive  to  improve  his  condition.  Such  has  been  the 
relation  of  America  to  England,  and  of  the  West  to  the  East. 


The  Causes  of  Race  Superiority  73 

This  is  why  America  spells  Opportunity.  Inspired  by 
hope  and  ambition  the  last  two  generations  of  Americans 
have  amazed  the  world  by  the  breathless  speed  with  which 
they  have  subdued  the  western  half  of  the  continent,  and 
filled  the  wilderness  with  homes  and  cities.  Never  has 
the  world  seen  such  prodigies  of  labor,  such  miracles  of 
enterprise,  as  the  creation  within  a  single  lifetime  of  a  vast 
ordered,  civilized  life  between  the  Mississippi  and  the  Pacific. 
Witnessing  such  lavished  expenditures  of  human  force,  can 
we  wonder  at  American  "rush,"  American  nervousness  and 
heart  failure,  at  gray  hairs  in  the  thirties  and  old  age  in  the 
fifties,  at  our  proverb  "Time  is  money  !  "  and  at  the  ubiqui- 
tous American  rocking  chair  or  hammock  which  enables  a 
tired  man  to  rest  very  quickly! 

Closely  related  to  energy  is  the  virtue  of  self-reliance. 
There  is  a  boldness  which  rises  at  the  elbow  touch  of  one's 
fellows,  and  there  is  a  stout-heartedness  which  inspires  a  man 
when  he  is  alone.  There  is  a  courage  which  confronts  reso- 
lutely a  known  danger,  and  a  courage  which  faces  perils  un- 
known or  vague.  Now,  it  is  this  latter  quality — self-reliance 
— which  characterizes  those  who  have  migrated  the  oftenest 
and  have  migrated  as  individuals.  On  our  frontier  has 
always  been  found  the  Daniel  Boone  type,  who  cared  little 
for  the  support  of  his  kind  and  loved  danger  and  adventure 
for  its  own  sake.  The  American's  faith  in  himself  and  con- 
fidence in  the  friendliness  of  the  unknown  may  be  due  to 
his  enlightenment,  but  it  is  more  likely  the  unapprehensive- 
ness  that  runs  in  the  blood  of  a  pioneering  breed.  Some- 
times, as  in  the  successive  trekkings  of  the  Boers  from  Cape 
Town  to  the  Limpopo,  the  trait  most  intensified  is  indepen- 
dence and  self-reliance.  Sometimes,  as  in  the  settling  of  the 
Trans-Mississippi  region,  the  premium  is  put  on  energy  and 
push.     But  in  any  case  voluntary  migration  demands  men. 

Even  in  an  old  country,  that  element  of  the  population  is 
destined  to  riches  and  power  which  excels  in  self-reliance 
and  enterprise.     Cities  are  now  the  places  of  opportunity 


74  Annai^  of  the  American  Academy 

and  of  prosperity,  and  it  has  been  shown  conclusively  that, 
in  the  urban  upbuilding  now  going  on  in  Central  Europe, 
where  long-skull  Teutons  and  broad-skull  Celto-Slavs  are 
mingled,  the  cities  are  more  Teutonic  than  the  rural  districts 
from  which  their  population  is  recruited.  The  city  is  a 
magnet  for  the  more  venturesome,  and  it  draws  to  it  more  of 
the  long-skulled  race  than  of  the  broad-skulled  race.  In 
spite  of  the  fact  that  he  has  no  greater  wit  and  capacity  than 
the  Celt,  the  Teuton's  superior  migrancy  takes  him  to  the 
foci  of  prosperity,  and  procures  him  a  higher  reward  and  a 
superior  social  status. 

Wherever  there  is  pioneering  or  settlement  to  do,  self- 
reliance  is  a  supreme  advantage.  The  expansion  of  the 
English-speaking  peoples  in  the  nineteenth  century — the 
English  in  building  their  Empire,  the  Americans  in  sub- 
duing the  West — seems  to  be  due  to  this  trait.  Self-reliance 
is,  in  fact,  a  sovereign  virtue  in  times  of  ferment  or  dis- 
placement. In  static  times,  however,  other  qualities  out- 
weigh it,  and  the  victory  may  fall  to  those  who  are  patient, 
obedient,  and  quick-witted,  rather  than  to  the  independent 
in  spirit.  If  this  be  so,  then  the  great  question  of  the  hour. 
What  is  to  be  the  near  destiny  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  ? 
involves  the  question  whether  we  stand  on  the  threshold  of 
a  dynamic,  or  a  static  epoch.  If  the  former,  well  for  the 
Anglo-Saxon;  if  the  latter,  it  may  be  the  Latins  who,  renew- 
ing their  faith  in  themselves,  will  forge  ahead. 

I  think  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  we  are  entering  a 
tumultuously  dynamic  epoch.  Science,  machinery  and 
steam — our  heritage  from  the  past  century — together  consti- 
tute a  new  economic  civilization  which  is  destined  to  work 
in  the  world  a  transformation  such  as  the  plow  works  among 
nomads.  Two  centuries  ago  Europe  had  little  to  offer  Asia 
in  an  industrial  way.  Now,  in  western  Europe  and  in 
America,  there  exists  an  industrial  technique  which  alters 
the  face  of  society  wherever  it  goes.  The  exploitation  of 
nature  and  man  by  steam  and  machinery  directed  by  techni- 


The  Causes  of  Race  Superiority  75 

cal  knowledge,  has  the  strongest  of  human  forces  behind  it, 
and  nothing  can  check  its  triumphant  expansion  over  the 
planet.  The  Arab  spreads  the  religion  of  Mahomet  with  the 
Koran  in  one  hand  and  the  sword  in  the  other.  The  white 
man  of  to-day  spreads  his  economic  gospel,  one  hand  on  a 
Gatling,  the  other  on  a  locomotive. 

It  will  take  at  least  two  or  three  generations  to  level  up 
the  industrial  methods  of  continents  like  South  America  or 
Africa  or  Asia,  as  a  Jamaica,  a  Martinique,  or  a  Hawaii 
have  been  levelled  up;  and  all  this  time  that  race  which 
excels  in  energy,  self-reliance  and  education  will  have  the 
advantage.  When  this  furiously  dynamic  epoch  closes, 
when  the  world  becomes  more  static,  and  uniformism  recurs, 
self-reliance  will  be  at  a  discount,  and  the  conditions  will 
again  favor  the  race  that  is  patient,  laborious,  frugal,  intelli- 
gent and  apt  in  consolidation.  Then,  perhaps,  the  Celtic 
and  Mediterranean  races  will  score  against  the  Anglo-Saxon. 

For  economic  greatness  perhaps  no  quality  is  more  impor- 
tant than  foresight.  To  live  from  hand  to  mouth  taking  no 
thought  of  the  morrow,  is  the  trait  of  primitive  man  gener- 
ally, and  especially  of  the  races  in  the  tropical  lands  where 
nature  is  bounteous,  and  the  strenuous  races  have  not  yet 
made  their  competition  felt.  From  the  Rio  Grande  to  the 
Rio  de  la  Plata,  the  laboring  masses,  largely  of  Indian  breed, 
are  without  a  compelling  vision  of  the  future.  The  Mexi- 
cans, our  consuls  write  us,  are  "  occupied  in  obtaining  food 
and  amusement  for  the  passing  hour  without  either  hope  or 
desire  for  a  better  future."  They  are  always  in  debt,  and  the 
workman  hired  for  a  job  asks  something  in  advance  to  buy 
materials  or  to  get  something  to  eat.  ' '  Slaves  of  local  attach- 
ments ' '  they  will  not  migrate  in  order  to  get  higher  wages. 
In  Ecuador  the  laborer  lets  to-morrow  take  care  of  itself 
and  makes  no  effort  to  accumulate.  In  Guiana,  where 
Hindoos,  Chinese,  Portuguese,  and  Creoles  labor  side  by 
side,  the  latter  squander  their  earnings  while  the  immigrants 
from  the  old  economic  civilizations  all  lay  by  in  order  to 


76  Annai^s  of  the  American  Academy 

return  home  and  enjc^.  In  Colombia  the  natives  will  not 
save,  nor  will  they  work  in  order  to  supply  themselves  with 
comforts.  In  British  Honduras  the  natives  are  happy-go-lucky 
negroes  who  rarely  save  and  who  spend  their  earnings  on 
festivals  and  extravagances,  rather  than  on  comforts  and 
decencies.  In  Venezuela  the  laborers  live  for  to-day  and  all 
their  week's  earnings  are  gone  by  Monday  morning  The 
Brazilians  work  as  little  as  they  can  and  live,  and  save  no 
money;  are  satisfied  so  long  as  they  have  a  place  to  sleep  and 
enough  to  eat. 

Since,  under  modern  conditions,  abundant  production  is 
bound  up,  not  so  much  with  patient  toil,  as  with  the  posses- 
sion of  ample  capital,  it  is  evident  that,  in  the  economic 
rivalry  of  races,  the  palm  goes  to  the  race  that  discounts  the 
future  least  and  is  willing  to  exchange  present  pleasures  for 
future  gratifications  most  nearly  at  par.  The  power  to  do 
this  depends  partly  on  a  lively  imagination  of  remote 
experiences  to  come,  partly  on  the  self-control  that  can  deny 
present  cravings,  or  resist  temptation  in  favor  of  the  thrifty 
course  recommended  by  reason.  We  may/ in  fact,  distin- 
guish two  types  of  men,  the  sensori-motor  moved  b}^  sense- 
impressions  and  bjr  sensory  images,  and  the  ideo-motor  moved 
by  ideas.  For  it  is  probable  that  the  provident  races  do  not 
accumulate  simply  from  the  liveliness  of  their  anticipation  of 
future  wants  or  gratifications,  but  from  the  domination  of 
certain  ideas.  The  tenant  who  is  saving  to  build  a  cottage 
of  his  own  is  not  animated  simply  by  a  picture  of  coming 
satisfactions.  All  his  teaching,  all  his  contact  with  his 
fellows,  conspire  to  make  "  home  "  the  goal  of  his  hopes,  to 
fill  his  horizon  with  that  one  radiant  idea.  So  in  the  renter 
who  is  scrimping  in  order  to  get  himself  a  farm  as  in  the 
immigrant  who  is  laying  by  to  go  back  and  ' '  be  somebody  ' ' 
in  the  old  country,  the  attraction  of  a  thousand  vaguely 
imagined  pleasures  is  concentrated  in  one  irresistible  idea. 
The  race  that  can  make  ideas  the  lodestars  of  life  is  certain 
to  supplant  a  race  of  impulsivists  absorbed  in  sensations,  and 
recollections  or  anticipations  of  sensations. 


The  Causes  of  Race  Superiority  77 

It  is  certain  that  races  differ  in  their  attitude  toward  past 
and  future.  M.  L,apie  has  drawn  a  contrast  between  the 
Arab  and  the  Jew.  The  Arab  remembers;  he  is  mindful  of 
past  favors  and  past  injuries.  He  harbors  his  vengeance  and 
cherishes  his  gratitude.  He  accepts  everything  on  the 
authority  of  tradition,  loves  the  ways  of  his  ancestors,  forms 
strong  local  attachments,  and  migrates  little.  The  Jew,  on 
the  other  hand,  turns  his  face  toward  the  future.  He  is 
thrifty  and  always  ready  for  a  good  stroke  of  business,  will, 
indeed,  join  with  his  worst  enemy  if  it  pays.  He  is  calcu- 
lating, enterprising,  migrant  and  ambitious. 

An  economic  quality  quite  distinct  from  foresight  is  the 
value  sense.  By  this  I  mean  that  facility  of  abstraction  and 
calculation  which  enables  a  man  to  fix  his  interest  on  the 
value  in  goods  rather  than  on  the  goods  themselves.  The 
mere  husbandman  is  a  utility  perceiver.  He  knows  the 
power  of  objects  to  keep  human  beings  alive  and  happy,  and 
has  no  difficulty  in  recognizing  what  is  good  and  what  is  not. 
But  the  trader  is  a  value  perceiver.  Not  what  a  thing  is 
good  for,  but  what  it  will  fetch,  engages  his  attention. 
Generic  utilities  are  relatively  stable,  for  wine  and  oil  and 
cloth  are  always  and  everywhere  fit  to  meet  human  wants; 
but  value  is  a  chameleon-like  thing,  varying  greatly  from 
time  to  time  and  place  to  place  and  person  to  person.  The 
successful  trader  dares  form  no  fixed  ideas  with  regard  to  his 
wares.  He  must  pursue  the  elusive  value  that  hovers  now 
here  and  now  there,  and  be  ready  at  any  moment  to  readjust 
his  notions.  He  must  be  a  calculator.  He  must  train  him- 
self to  recognize  the  abstract  in  the  concrete  and  to  distill  the 
abstract  out  of  the  concrete.  Economically,  then,  the  trader 
is  to  the  husbandman  what  the  husbandman  is  to  the  hunter. 
The  appearance  of  cities,  money,  and  commerce  puts  a 
premium  on  the  man  who  can  perceive  value.  He  accumu- 
lates property  and  founds  a  house,  while  his  less  skillful  rival 
sinks  and  is  devoured  by  war  and  by  labor. 

All  through  that  ancient  world  which  produced  the  Phce- 


78  Annaes  of  the  American  Academy 

necian,  the  Jew,  the  Greek  and  the  Roman,  the  acquisition 
of  property  made  a  difference  in  survival  we  can  hardly 
understand  to-day.  Our  per  capita  production  is  probably 
three  or  four  times  as  great  as  theirs  was,  and  hence  the 
grain-handlers  of  Buffalo  are  vastly  more  able  to  maintain  a 
family  than  were  the  grain-handlers  of  old  Carthage  or 
Alexandria.  All  around  the  Mediterranean  trade  pros- 
pered the  value  perceivers,  and  that  type  tended  to  multiply 
and  tinge  more  and  more  the  psychology  and  ideals  of  the 
classic  world.  In  ancient  society  the  difference  in  death 
rates  and  in  family-supporting  power  of  the  various  indus- 
trial grades  exceeded  anything  we  are  familiar  with,  and 
hence  those  who  were  steady  and  thrifty  in  labor  or  shrewd 
and  prudent  in  trade  vastly  improved  their  chances  of  sur- 
vival. Thus  the  economic  man  multiplied,  and  commer- 
cial, money-making  Byzantium  rose  on  the  ruins  of  the 
old  races.  ' '  Long  before  the  seat  of  empire  was  moved  to 
Constantinople,"  says  Mr.  Freeman,  "  the  name  of  Roman 
had  ceased  to  imply  even  a  presumption  of  descent  from 
the  old  patricians  and  plebeians."  "The  Julius,  the 
Claudius,  the  Cornelius  of  those  days  was  for  the  most  part 
no  Roman  by  lineal  descent,  but  a  Greek,  a  Gaul,  a  Spaniard 
or  an  Illyrian." 

Between  the  economic  type  and  the  military  type  there  is 
abrupt  contrast,  and  the  social  situation  cannot  well  favor 
them  both  at  the  same  time.  The  warrior  shows  passional 
courage  and  the  sway  of  impulse  and  imagination.  The 
trader  is  calculating,  counts  the  cost,  and  prizes  a  whole 
skin.  From  the  second  century  B.  C.  the  substitution  of  this 
type  for  the  old,  heroic,  Cincinnatus  type  went  on  so  rapidly 
that  a  recent  writer  finds  congenital  cowardice  to  be  the  mark 
of  the  Roman  Senate  and  nobility  during  the  empire.  We 
all  know  the  brilliant  picture  that  Mr.  Brooks  Adams,  in 
his  "Law  of  Civilization  and  Decay,"  has  given  of  the 
replacement  of  the  military  by  the  economic  type  in  western 
Europe  since  the  Crusades. 


The  Causes  of  Race  Superiority  79 

If  this  hypothesis  be  sound,  the  value  perceiving  sense  is 
to  be  looked  for  in  old  races  that  have  long  known  cities, 
money  and  trade.  The  Jew  came  under  these  influences 
at  least  twelve  centuries  earlier  than  did  our  Teutonic  ances- 
tors and  has  therefore  had  about  forty  or  fifty  generations 
the  start  of  us  in  becoming  economic.  Equal  or  even  greater 
is  the  lead  of  the  Chinaman.  It  is,  then,  no  wonder  that  the 
Jews  and  the  Chinese  are  the  two  most  formidable  mercan- 
tile races  in  the  world  to-day,  just  as,  in  the  Middle  Ages,  the 
Greeks  and  the  Italians  were  the  most  redoubtable  traf- 
fickers and  money-makers  in  Europe.  The  Scotchman,  the 
Fleming,  and  the  Yankee,  minor  and  later  economic  varieties 
developed  in  the  West,  can,  indeed,  exist  alongside  the  Jew. 
The  less  mercantile  German,  however,  fails  to  hold  his  own, 
and  vents  his  wrath  in  Anti-Semitism.  The  Slav,  unsophis- 
ticated and  rural,  loses  invariably  in  his  dealings  with  the 
Jew,  and  so  harshly  drives  him  out  in  vast  numbers. 

May  we  not,  then,  conveniently  recognize  two  stages  in  the 
development  away  from  the  barbarian  ?  Hindoos,  Japanese, 
North  Africans  and  Europeans,  in  their  capacity  for  steady 
labor,  their  foresight,  and  their  power  to  save,  constitute 
what  I  will  call  the  domesticated  races.  But  the  Jews,  the 
Chinese,  the  Parsees,  the  Armenians,  and  in  general  the 
peoples  about  the  Mediterranean  constitute  the  economic  races. 
The  expurgated  and  deleted  Teuton  of  the  West,  on  the 
other  hand,  is  more  recently  from  the  woods,  and  remains 
something  of  the  barbarian  after  all.  We  see  it  in  his  migra- 
toriness,  his  spirit  of  adventure,  his  love  of  dangerous  sports, 
his  gambling  propensities,  his  craving  for  strong  drink,  his 
living  up  to  his  standard  of  comfort  whether  he  can  afford  it 
or  not.  In  quest  of  excitement  he  betakes  himself  to  the 
Far  West  or  the  Klondike,  whereas  the  Jew  betakes  himself 
to  the  Board  of  Trade  or  the  Bourse.  In  direct  competition 
with  the  more  economic  type  the  Anglo-Saxon  is  handi- 
capped by  lack  of  patience  and  financial  acumen,  but  still 
his  virtues  insure  him  a  rich  portion.     His  energy  and  self- 


80  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

reliance  locate  hirn  in  cities  and  in  the  spacious,  thriving 
parts  of  the  earth  where  the  economic  reward  is  highest. 
Born  pioneer,  he  prospects  the  wilderness,  pre-empting  the 
richest  deposits  of  the  precious  metals  and  skimming  the 
cream  from  the  resources  of  nature.  Strong  in  war  and  in 
government,  he  jealously  guards  his  own  from  the  economic 
races,  and  meets  finesse  with  force;  so  that  despite  his  less 
developed  value  sense,  more  and  more  the  choice  lands  and 
the  riches  of  the  earth  come  into  his  possession  and  support 
his  brilliant  yet  solid  civilization. 

It  is  through  no  inadvertence  that  I  have  not  brought 
forward  the  martial  traits  as  a  cause  of  race  superiority.  I 
do  not  believe  that  the  martial  traits  apart  from  economic 
prowess  are  likely  in  the  future  to  procure  success  to  any 
race.  When  men  kill  one  another  by  arms  of  precision 
instead  of  by  stabbing  and  hacking,  the  knell  is  sounded  for 
purely  warelike  races  like  the  Vandals,  the  Huns  and  the 
Turks.  Invention  has  so  completely  transformed  warfare 
that  it  has  become  virtually  an  extra-hazardous  branch  of 
engineering.  The  factory  system  receives  its  latest  and  su- 
preme application  in  the  killing  of  men.  Against  an  intelli- 
gent force  equipped  with  the  modern  specialized  appliances 
of  slaughter  no  amount  of  mere  warlike  manhood  can  pre- 
vail. The  fate  of  the  Dervishes  is  typical  of  what  must 
more  and  more  often  occur  when  men  are  pitted  against 
properly  operated  lethal  machinery. 

Now,  the  war  factory  is  as  expensive  as  it  is  effective. 
None  but  the  economic  races,  up  to  their  eyes  in  capital  and 
expert  in  managing  machinery,  can  keep  it  running  long. 
Warfare  is  becoming  a  costly  form  of  competition  in  which 
the  belligerents  shed  each  other's  treasure  rather  than 
each  other's  blood.  A  nation  loses,  not  when  it  is  denuded 
of  men,  but  when  it  is  at  the  end  of  its  financial  resources. 
War  is,  in  fact,  coming  to  be  the  supreme,  economic  touch- 
stone, testing  systems  of  cultivation  and  transportation  and 
banking,  as  well  as  personal  courage  and  military  organ- 
ization. 


The;  Causes  of  Rack  Superiority  8i 

At  the  same  time  that  war  is  growing  more  expensive 
it  is  becoming  less  profitable.  The  fruits  of  victory  are 
often  mere  apples  of  Sodom.  A  decent  respect  for  the  opin- 
ion of  mankind  debars  a  civilized  people  from  massacring 
the  conquered  in  order  to  plant  its  own  colonists  on  their 
land,  from  enslaving  them,  from  bleeding  them  with  heavy 
and  perpetual  tribute.  Fortunate,  indeed,  is  the  victor  if 
he  can  extort  enough  to  indemnify  him  for  his  outlay. 
Therefore,  at  the  very  moment  that  the  cost  of  war  increases, 
the  declining  profits  of  war  stamp  it  as  an  industry  of 
decreasing  returns.  Wealth  is  a  means  of  procuring  victory, 
but  victory  is  no  longer  a  means  of  procuring  wealth.  A 
non-martial  race  may  easily  become  victorious  by  means  of 
its  prosperity,  but  it  will  be  harder  and  harder  for  a  non- 
economic  race  to  become  prosperous  by  means  of  its  vic- 
tories. Even  now  the  Turks  in  Europe  are  declining  in 
numbers,  and  in  spite  of  Armenian  massacres  the  industrial 
races  of  the  empire  are  growing  up  through  the  top-dressing 
of  oppressors.  It  would  seem  safe  to  say  that  the  purely 
war-like  traits  no  longer  insure  race  survival  and  expan- 
sion, and  that  in  the  competitions  of  the  future  the  traits 
which  enhance  economic  efficiency  are  likely  to  be  most 
decisive. 

In  the  dim  past  when  cultures  were  sporadic,  each  develop- 
ing apart  in  some  island  or  river  delta  or  valley  closet,  no 
race  could  progress  unless  it  bore  its  crop  of  inventive 
genius.  A  high  average  of  capacity  was  not  so  important 
as  a  few  Gutenbergs  and  Faradays  in  each  generation  to 
make  lasting  additions  to  the  national  culture.  If  fruitful 
initiatives  were  forthcoming,  imitation  and  education  could 
be  trusted  to  make  them  soon  the  common  possession  of  all. 

But  when  culture  becomes  cosmopolitan,  as  it  is  to-day,  the 
success  of  a  race  turns  much  more  on  the  efficiency  of  its 
average  units  than  on  the  inventions  and  discoveries  of  its 
geniuses.  The  heaven-sent  man  who  invents  the  locomotive, 
or  the  dynamo,  or  the  germ  theory,  confers  thereby  no  exclu- 


82  Annals  of  the;  American  Academy 

sive  advantage  on  his  people  or  his  race.  So  perfect  is 
intellectual  commerce,  so  complete  is  the  organization  of 
science,  that  almost  at  once  the  whole  civilized  world  knows 
and  profits  by  his  achievements.  Nowadays  the  pioneering 
genius  belongs  to  mankind,  and  however  patriotic  he  may 
be  he  aids  most  the  race  that  is  most  prompt  and  able  to 
exploit  his  invention.  Parasitism  of  this  kind,  therefore,  tends 
to  annul  genius  as  a  factor  in  race  survival.  During  the  cen- 
tury just  closed  the  French  intellect  has  stood  supreme  in  its 
contributions  to  civilization;  yet  France  has  derived  no 
exclusive  advantage  from  her  men  of  genius.  It  is  differ- 
ences in  the  qualities  of  the  common  men  of  the  rival 
peoples  that  explains  why  France  has  not  doubled  its  popu- 
lation in  a  century,  while  the  English  stock  in  the  meantime 
has  peopled  some  of  the  choicest  parts  of  the  world  and  more 
than  quadrupled  its  numbers. 

Henceforth  this  principle  of  cosmopolitanism  must  be 
reckoned  with.  Even  if  the  Chinese  have  not  }ret  van- 
quished the  armies  of  the  West  with  Mauser  rifles  supplied 
from  Belgium,  there  is  no  reason  why  that  mediocre  and  intel- 
lectually sterile  race  may  not  yet  defeat  us  industrially  by  the 
aid  of  machines  and  processes  conceived  in  the  fertile  brains  of 
our  Edisons  and  Marconis.  Organizing  talent,  of  course, — 
industrial,  administrative,  military, — each  race  must,  in  the 
long  run,  produce  from  its  own  loins  ;  but  in  the  industrial 
Armageddon  to  come  it  may  be  that  the  laurels  will  be  won 
by  a  mediocre  type  of  humanity,  equipped  with  the  science 
and  the  appliances  of  the  more  brilliant  and  brain-fertile  peo- 
ples. Not  preponderance  of  genius  will  be  decisive,  but 
more  and  more  the  energy,  self-reliance,  fecundity,  and 
acquired  skill  of  the  average  man  ;  and  the  nation  will  do 
most  for  itself  that  knows  how  best  to  foster  these  winning 
qualities  by  means  of  education  and  wise  social  institutions. 

How  far  does  moral  excellence  profit  a  race?  Those  who 
hold  that  Die  Weltgeschichte  ist  das  Weltgericht  tell  us  that 
the  weal  or  woe  of  nations  depends  upon  morals.     Indeed, 


The  Causes  of  Race  Superiority  83 

every  flourishing  people  lays  its  prosperity  first  to  its  religion, 
and  then  to  its  moral  code.  Climatic  adaptation  or  economic 
capacity  is  the  last  thing  to  be  thought  of  as  a  cause  of 
superiority. 

The  chief  moral  trait  of  a  winning  race  is  stability  of 
character.  Primitive  peoples  are  usually  over-emotional 
and  poised  unstably  between  smiles  and  tears.  They  act 
quickly  if  at  all,  and  according  to  the  impulse  of  the  moment. 
The  Abyssinian,  for  example,  is  fickle,  fleeting  and  per- 
jured, the  Kirghiz  "  fickle  and  uncertain,"  the  Bedouin 
"loves  and  honors  violent  acts."  The  courage  of  the 
Mongol  is  "  a  sudden  blaze  of  pugnacity  ' '  rather  than  a  cool 
intrepidity.  We  recall  Carlyle's  comparing  Gallic  fire 
which  is  "as  the  crackling  of  dry  thorns  under  a  pot,"  with 
the  Teutonic  fire  which  rises  slowly  but  will  smelt  iron.  In 
private  endeavor  perseverance,  in  the  social  economy  the 
keeping  of  promises,  and  in  the  state  steadfastness — these 
are  the  requisites  of  success,  and  they  all  depend  on  stability 
of  character.  Reliability  in  business  engagements  and 
settled  reverence  for  law  are  indispensable  in  higher  social 
development.  The  great  economic  characteristics  of  this  age 
are  the  tendency  to  association,  the  growth  of  exchange,  the 
increasing  use  of  capital  and  the  greater  elaborateness  of 
organization.  They  all  imply  the  spreading  of  business 
over  more  persons,  more  space,  and  more  time,  and  the 
increasing  dependence  of  every  enterprise  upon  what  certain 
persons  have  been  appointed  to  do  or  have  engaged  to 
do.  Unreliable  persons  who  fail  to  do  their  duty  or  keep 
their  promises  are  quickly  extruded  from  the  economic 
organization.  Industrial  evolution,  therefore,  places  a 
rising  premium  on  reflection  and  self-control,  the  founda- 
tions of  character.  More  and  more  it  penalizes  the  childish- 
ness or  frivolousness  of  the  cheaply-gotten-up,  mana?ia 
races. 

As  regards  the  altruistic  virtues,  they  are  too  common  to 
confer  a  special  advantage.     Honesty,  docility,  faithfulness 


84  Annates  of  the;  American  Academy 

and  other  virtues  that  lessen  social  friction  abound  at  every 
stage  of  culture  and  in  almost  every  breed.  The  economic 
virtues  are  a  function  of  race;  but  the  moral  virtues  seem  rather 
to  be  a  function  of  association.  They  do  not  make  society  ; 
society  makes  them.  Just  as  the  joint  secretes  the  lubricat- 
ing synovial  fluid  so  every  settled  community,  if  undisturbed, 
secretes  in  time  the  standards,  ideals  and  imperatives  which 
are  needed  to  lessen  friction.  Good  order  is,  in  fact,  so  little 
a  monopoly  of  the  higher  races  that  the  attainment  of  it  is 
more  difficult  among  Americans  at  Dutch  Flat  or  Skagway 
than  it  is  among  Eskimos  or  Indians.  Sociability  and  sym- 
pathy are,  indeed,  serviceable  in  promoting  cohesion  among 
natural  men  ;  but  they  are  of  little  account  in  the  higher 
social  architecture.  The  great  races  have  been  stern  and 
grasping,  with  a  strong  property  sense.  More  and  more  the 
purposive  triumphs  over  the  spontaneous  association  ;  so  that 
the  great  historic  social  edifices  are  built  on  concurrence  of 
aims,  on  custom  or  religion  or  law,  never  on  mere  brotherly 
feeling. 

Indeed,  the  primary  social  sentiments  are  at  variance  with 
that  sturdy  self-reliance  which,  as  we  have  seen,  enables  a 
race  to  overrun  the  earth.  It  was  observed  even  in  the 
California  gold  diggings  that  the  French  miners  stayed  to- 
gether, while  the  solitary  American  or  Briton  serenely  roamed 
the  wilderness  with  his  outfit  on  a  burro,  and  made  the 
richest  "strikes."  To-day  a  French  railway  builder  in 
Tonkin  says  of  the  young  French  engineers  in  his  employ : 
"  They  sicken,  morally  and  physically,  these  fellows.  They 
need  papa  and  mamma  !  I  had  good  results  from  bringing 
them  together  once  or  twice  a  week,  keeping  them  laugh- 
ing, making  them  amuse  themselves  and  each  other,  in  spite 
of  lack  of  amusement.  Then  all  would  go  well."  It  is  per- 
haps this  cruel  homesickness  which  induces  the  French  to 
restrict  their  numbers  rather  than  expatriate  themselves  to 
over-sea  colonies.  Latin  sociability  is  the  fountain  of  many 
of  the  graces  that  make  life  worth  living,  but  it  is  certainly 


The  Causes  of  Race  Superiority  85 

a  handicap  in  just  this  critical  epoch,  when  the  apportion- 
ment of  the  earth  among  the  races  depends  so  much  on  a 
readiness  to  fight,  trade,  prospect  or  colonize  thousands  of 
miles  from  home. 

The  superiority  of  a  race  cannot  be  preserved  without 
pride  of  blood  and  an  uncompromising  attitude  toward  the 
lower  races.  In  Spanish  America  the  easygoing  and 
unfastidious  Spaniard  peopled  the  continent  with  half-breeds 
and  met  the  natives  half  way  in  respect  to  religious  and 
political  institutions.  In  East  Africa  and  Brazil  the  Portu- 
guese showed  toward  the  natives  even  less  of  that  race 
aversion  which  is  so  characteristic  of  the  Dutch  and  the 
English.  In  North  America,  on  the  other  hand,  the  white 
men  have  rarely  mingled  their  blood  with  that  of  the  Indian 
or  toned  down  their  civilization  to  meet  his  capacities.  The 
Spaniard  absorbed  the  Indians,  the  English  exterminated 
them  by  fair  means  or  foul.  Whatever  may  be  thought  of  the 
latter  policy,  the  net  result  is  that  North  America  from  the 
Behring  Sea  to  the  Rio  Grande  is  dedicated  to  the  highest 
type  of  civilization;  while  for  centuries  the  rest  of  our 
hemisphere  will  drag  the  ball  and  chain  of  hybridism. 

Since  the  higher  culture  should  be  kept  pure  as  well  as 
the  higher  blood,  that  race  is  stronger  which,  down  to  the 
cultivator  or  the  artisan,  has  a  strong  sense  of  its  superiority. 
When  peoples  and  races  meet  there  is  a  silent  struggle  to 
determine  which  shall  do  the  assimilating.  The  issue  of 
this  grapple  turns  not  wholly  on  the  relative  excellence  of 
their  civilizations,  but  partly  on  the  degree  of  faith  each 
has  in  itself  and  its  ideals.  The  Greeks  assimilated  to  them- 
selves all  the  peoples  about  the  Mediterranean  save  the  Jew, 
partly  because  the  humblest  wandering  Greek  despised  "the 
barbarians,"  and  looked  upon  himself  as  a  missionary  to  the 
heathen.  The  absorbent  energy  of  the  United  States  prob- 
ably surpasses  that  of  any  mere  colony  because  of  the  stimu- 
lus given  us  by  an  independent  national  existence.  America 
is  a  psychic  maelstrom  that  has  sucked  in  and  swallowed  up 


86  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

hosts  of  aliens.  Five  millions  of  Germans,  for  instance, 
have  joined  us,  and  yet  how  little  has  our  institutional 
development  been  deflected  by  them  !  I  dare  say  the  few 
thousand  university-trained  Germans,  and  Americans  edu- 
cated in  Heidelberg  or  Gottingen,  have  injected  more  Ger- 
man culture  into  our  veins  than  all  the  immigrants  that  ever 
passed  through  Castle  Garden.  There  is  no  doubt  that  the 
triumph  of  Americanism  over  these  heterogeneous  elements, 
far  more  decisive  now  than  eighty  years  ago,  has  been  has- 
tened by  the  vast  contempt  that  even  the  native  farm-hand 
or  mechanic  feels  for  the  unassimilated  immigrant.  Had  he 
been  less  sure  of  himself,  had  he  felt  less  pride  in  American 
ideals  and  institutions,  the  tale  might  have  been  different. 

One  question  remains.  Is  the  Superior  Race  as  we  have 
portrayed  it,  able  to  survive  all  competitions  and  expand 
under  all  circumstances  ?  There  is,  I  am  convinced,  one 
respect  in  which  very  foresight  and  will  power  that  mark 
the  higher  race  dig  a  pit  beneath  its  feet. 

In  the  presence  of  the  plenty  produced  by  its  triumphant 
energy  the  superior  race  forms  what  the  economists  call  ' '  a 
Standard  of  Comfort,"  and  refuses  to  multiply  save  upon 
this  plane.  With  his  native  ambition  stimulated  by  the 
opportunity  to  rise  and  his  natural  foresight  reinforced  by 
education,  the  American,  for  example,  overrules  his  strongest 
instincts  and  refrains  from  marrying  or  from  increasing  his 
family  until  he  can  realize  his  subjective  standard  of  comfort 
or  decency.  The  power  to  form  and  cling  to  such  a  standard 
is  not  only  one  of  the  noblest  triumphs  of  reason  over 
passion,  but  is,  in  sooth,  the  only  sure  hope  for  the  eleva- 
tion of  the  mass  of  men  from  the  abyss  of  want  and  struggle. 
The  progress  of  invention  held  out  such  a  hope  but  it  has 
proven  a  mockery.  Steam  and  machinery,  it  is  true,  ease 
for  a  little  the  strain  of  population  on  resources;  but  if  the 
birth-rate  starts  forward  and  the  slack,  is  soon  taken  up  by 
the  increase  of  mouths,  the  final  result  is  simply  more  peo- 
ple living  on  the  old  plane.     The  rosy  glow  thrown  upon 


The  Causes  of  Race  Superiority  87 

the  future  by  progress  in  the  industrial  arts  proves  but  a 
false  dawn  unless  the  common  people  acquire  new  wants  and 
raise  the  plane  upon  which  the)'  multiply. 

Now,  this  rising  standard,  which  alone  can  pilot  us  toward 
the  Golden  Age,  is  a  fatal  weakness  when  a  race  comes  to 
compete  industrially  with  a  capable  race  that  multiplies  on  a 
lower  plane.  Suppose,  for  example,  Asiatics  flock  to  this 
country  and,  enjoying  equal  opportunities  under  our  laws, 
learn  our  methods  and  compete  actively  with  Americans. 
They  may  be  able  to  produce  and  therefore  earn  in  the  or- 
dinary occupations,  say  three-fourths  as  much  as  Americans  ; 
but  if  their  standard  of  life  is  only  half  as  high,  the  Asiatic 
will  marry  before  the  American  feels  able  to  marry.  The 
Asiatic  will  rear  two  children  while  his  competitor  feels  able 
to  rear  but  one.  The  Asiatic  will  increase  his  children  to  six 
under  conditions  that  will  not  encourage  the  American  to 
raise  more  than  four.  Both,  perhaps,  are  forward-looking 
and  influenced  by  the  worldly  prospects  of  their  children  ; 
but  where  the  Oriental  is  satisfied  with  the  outlook  the 
American,  who  expects  to  school  his  children  longer  and  place 
them  better,  shakes  his  head. 

Now,  to  such  a  competition  there  are  three  possible 
results.  First,  the  American,  becoming  discouraged,  may 
relinquish  his  exacting  standard  of  decency  and  begin  to 
multiply  as  freely  as  the  Asiatic.  This,  however,  is  likely 
to  occur  only  among  the  more  reckless  and  worthless  ele- 
ments of  our  population.  Second,  the  Asiatic  may  catch  up 
our  wants  as  well  as  our  arts,  and  acquire  the  higher  stand- 
ard and  lower  rate  of  increase  of  the  American.  This  is  just 
what  contact  and  education  are  doing  for  the  French  Cana- 
dians in  New  Kngland,  for  the  immigrants  in  the  West,  and 
for  the  negro  in  some  parts  of  the  South;  but  the  members 
of  a  great  culture  race  like  the  Chinese  show  no  disposition, 
even  when  scattered  sparsely  among  us,  to  assimilate  to  us 
or  to  adopt  our  standards.  Not  until  their  self-complacency 
has  been  undermined  at  home  and  an  extensive  intellectual 


88  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

ferment  has  taken  place  in  China  itself  will  the  Chinese 
become  assimilable  elements.  Thirdly,  the  standards  may- 
remain  distinct,  the  rates  of  increase  unequal,  and  the  silent 
replacement  of  Americans  by  Asiatics  go  on  unopposed  until 
the  latter  monopolize  all  industrial  occupations,  and  the 
Americans  shrink  to  a  superior  caste  able  perhaps  by  virtue 
of  its  genius,  its  organization,  and  its  vantage  of  position  to 
retain  for  a  while  its  hold  on  government,  education, 
finance,  and  the  direction  of  industry,  but  hopelessly  beaten 
and  displaced  as  a  race.  In  other  words,  the  American  farm 
hand,  mechanic  and  operative  might  wither  away  before  the 
heavy  influx  of  a  prolific  race  from  the  Orient,  just  as  in 
classic  times  the  L,atin  husbandman  vanished  before  the  end- 
less stream  of  slaves  poured  into  Italy  by  her  triumphant 
generals. 

For  a  case  like  this  I  can  find  no  words  so  apt  as 
"race  suicide."  There  is  no  bloodshed,  no  violence,  no 
assault  of  the  race  that  waxes  upon  the  race  that  wanes. 
The  higher  race  quietly  and  unmurmuringly  eliminates  itself 
rather  than  endure  individually  the  bitter  competition  it  has 
failed  to  ward  off  from  itself  by  collective  action.  The 
working  classes  gradually  delay  marriage  and  restrict  the  size 
of  the  family  as  the  opportunities  hitherto  reserved  for  their 
children  are  eagerly  snapped  up  by  the  numerous  progeny 
of  the  foreigner.  The  prudent,  self-respecting  natives  first 
cease  to  expand,  and  then,  as  the  struggle  for  existence  grows 
sterner  and  the  outlook  for  their  children  darker,  they  fail 
even  to  recruit  their  own  numbers.  It  is  probably  the  visible 
narrowing  of  the  circle  of  opportunity  through  the  infiltra- 
tion of  Irish  and  French  Canadians  that  has  brought  so  low 
the  native  birth-rate  in  New  England. 

-  However  this  may  be,  it  is  certain  that  if  we  venture  to 
apply  to  the  American  people  of  to-day  the  series  of  tests  of 
superiority  I  have  set  forth  to  you  at  such  length,  the  result  is 
most  gratifying  to  our  pride.  It  is  true  that  our  average  of 
energy  and  character  is  lowered  by  the  presence  in  the  South 


The  Causes  of  Race  Superiority  89 

of  several  millions  of  an  inferior  race.  It  is  true  that  the 
last  twenty  years  have  diluted  us  with  masses  of  fecund  but 
beaten  humanity  from  the  hovels  of  far  Lombardy  and  Galicia. 
It  is  true  that  our  free  land  is  gone  and  our  opportunities 
•  will  henceforth  attract  immigrants  chiefly  from  the  humbler 
strata  of  East  European  peoples.  Yet,  while  there  are  here 
problems  that  only  high  statesmanship  can  solve,  I  believe 
there  is  at  the  present  moment  no  people  in  the  world  that 
is,  man  for  man,  equal  to  the  Americans  in  capacity  and 
efficiency.  We  stand  now  at  the  moment  when  the  gradual 
westward  migration  has  done  its  work.  The  tonic  selections 
of  the  frontier  have  brought  us  as  far  as  they  can  bring  us. 
The  testing  individualizing  struggle  with  the  wilderness  has 
developed  in  us  what  it  would  of  body,  brain  and  character. 
Moreover,  free  institutions  and  universal  education  have 
keyed  to  the  highest  tension  the  ambitions  of  the  Ameri- 
can. He  has  been  chiefly  farmer  and  is  only  beginning 
to  expose  himself  to  the  deteriorating  influences  of  city  and 
factory.  He  is  now  probably  at  the  climax  of  his  energy  and 
everything  promises  that  in  the  centuries  to  come  he  is 
destined  to  play  a  brilliant  and  leading  role  on  the  stage  of 
history. 


PART    III:     THE     RACE 
PROBLEM  AT  THE  SOUTH 


(91) 


THE  RACE  PROBLEM  AT  THE 
SOUTH.  INTRODUCTORY  REMARKS. 
BY  COL.  HILARY  A.  HERBERT, 
EX-SECRETARY    OF    THE    NAVY 


(93) 


THE   RACE  PROBLEM  AT  THE  SOUTH. 
By  Col.  Hilary  A.  Herbert, 

Ex-Secretary  of  the  Navy. 

This  is  a  land  of  free  speech.  Americans  may  now  discuss 
anywhere,  North  or  South,  even  their  Negro  question  in  all 
its  bearings.  This  it  has  not  always  been  easy  to  do  even 
in  this  historic  city,  which  claims  the  proud  distinction  of 
being  the  birthplace  of  American  liberties.  In  1859  George 
William  Curtis  became  temporarily  a  hero  by  an  anti- 
slavery  speech  in  Philadelphia.  A  mob  had  gathered  to 
prevent  him,  but  the  mayor  of  the  city,  backed  by  the  police, 
succeeded  in  protecting  the  speaker,  who  delivered  his 
address  in  spite  of  the  missiles  that  were  hurled  into  the 
room  where  he  spoke.  The  next  year,  however,  so  violent 
were  the  passions  of  the  day  that  the  friends  of  that  great 
orator  could  not  hire  a  hall  in  this  city  for  Mr.  Curtis  to 
lecture  in,  even  on  a  subject  totally  disconnected  with  the 
Negro,  or  with  politics. 

In  those  days  the  Negro  question  was  full  of  dynamite, 
because  we  then  had  in  this  country  two  systems,  I  might 
almost  say  two  civilizations,  one  founded  on  free  and  the 
other  intimately  interwoven  with  and  largely  dependent  upon 
slave  labor.  They  were  in  sharp  conflict  with  each  other, 
and  therefore  it  was  that  free  discussion  of  the  slavery 
question,  or  Negro  problem,  was  then  sometimes  difficult  at 
the  North,  while  it  was  everywhere  impossible  in  the  South. 
Abolition  sentiment  was  proclaiming  in  the  North  that 
slavery  must  go,  no  matter  at  what  cost.  In  the  South, 
therefore,  the  stern  law  of  self-preservation  demanded  the 
rigid  suppression  of  free  speech  on  this  question,  lest  discus- 
sion should  incite  insurrection,  and  light  the  midnight  torch 
of  the  incendiary.  In  the  North  the  motive  of  the  mobs 
which,  like  those  who  gathered  around  Mr.  Curtis  here  in 

(95) 


g6  ANNAI£  OF  THE   AMERICAN   ACADEMY 

1859,  and  who  called  themselves  Union  men,  was  to  pre- 
vent abolition  speeches  because  they  saw  in  them  disunion 
or  civil  war,  or  it  might  be  both  civil  war  and  disunion. 
The  civil  war  came;  it  was  terrible;  more  terrible  than 
dreamer  ever  dreamed  of.  But  it  is  over,  and  there  will 
never  be  disunion;  no  one  fears  it  now,  because  now  no  one 
desires  it.  Slavery  is  dead,  and  can  never  be  resurrected. 
So,  therefore,  there  is  now  nothing  to  hinder  free  speech, 
here  or  elsewhere  in  our  country,  about  the  race  problem 
in  the  South.  We  are  all  here  to  aid,  as  far  as  we 
may,  in  its  correct  solution.  The  city  in  which  this  meeting 
is  convened,  the  auspices  under  which  we  are  met,  the  start- 
ling contrasts  in  the  antecedents  of  those  who  are  to  take 
part  in  the  discussion,  all  are  propitious.  This  Academy  is 
seeking  knowledge. 

But  let  us  not  lose  sight  of  the  fact  that  many  years  had 
rolled  away  after  our  Civil  War,  before  a  meeting  comprising 
so  many  divergent  elements  as  this  became  possible,  even  in 
the  city  of  Philadelphia.  If  in  1861  there  was  dynamite  in 
the  Negro  question,  so  when  that  dynamite  had  exploded, 
and  when  states  had  been  wrecked  and  social  and  economic 
systems  shattered,  the  problems  that  grew  out  of  the  Negro 
question  were  quite  as  exciting  when  up  for  discussion  as 
had  been  slavery  itself. 

The  most  acute  form  in  which  this  many-sided  question 
then  presented  itself  was  suffrage,  and  every  student  now 
knows  that  political  science  played  no  part  in  its  solution, 
that  the  reconstruction  acts  were  passed  and  the  Fifteenth 
Amendment  was  adopted  when  party  spirit  was  more  intol- 
erant than  it  had  ever  been  before,  and  the  passions  of  war 
were  still  blazing  fiercely.  The  Constitution  of  the  fathers 
was  framed  in  this  city  after  mature  deliberation  behind 
closed  doors.  The  Fifteenth  Amendment,  changing  that 
instrument  fundamentally,  was  formulated  after  heated 
debate  in  Congress,  on  the  rostrum,  and  in  the  newspapers 
throughout  the  land .     In  debating  the  question  of  granting 


The  Rack  Problem  at  the  South  97 

suffrage  by  law  to  millions  of  ex-slaves,  and  then  of  clinch- 
ing the  right  by  a  constitutional  provision  intended  to  secure 
it  forever,  whether  it  worked  for  good  or  evil,  the  funda- 
mental proposition  for  consideration  should  have  been  the 
fitness  of  the  Negro.  Was  he  intellectually,  by  training  and 
antecedents,  competent  to  take  part — often  a  controlling 
part — in  the  great  business  of  government  ?  But  the  case 
did  not  turn  on  that  point,  the  discussion  was  always  wide 
of  that  mark.  The  nearest  approach  to  the  question  of  the 
fitness  of  the  ex-slave  for  the  ballot  was  this  argument:  Did 
not  the  government  free  the  Negro  ?  Was  he  not  the  ward 
of  the  nation  ?  Did  not  the  government  owe  him  protec- 
tion ?  And  how  could  he  protect  himself  without  the 
ballot? 

This,  though  fitness  was  assumed  without  argument  to 
support  it,  is  the  most  defensible  of  all  the  grounds  on  which 
the  Fifteenth  Amendment  became  part  of  the  Constitution. 
If  the  Negro  had  only  possessed  the  qualifications  which 
political  science  tells  us  are  essential  in  those  on  whose 
shoulders  rest  the  burdens  of  republican  government,  with 
the  ballot  in  hand  he  would  not  only  have  protected  him- 
self, but  he  would  have  given  to  the  Southern  States,  and  he 
would  have  helped  to  give  to  the  nation,  the  blessings  of 
good  government.  But  the  fitness  for  the  ballot  that  had 
been  taken  for  granted  did  not  exist.  The  political  struc- 
tures based  on  Negro  ballots,  like  the  house  of  the  unwise 
man  in  the  Scriptures,  fell  because  they  were  builded  upon 
sand. 

Out  of  reconstruction  and  the  Fifteenth  Amendment  have 
come  many  of  the  peculiar  phases,  and  nearly  all  the  aggra- 
vations which  now  beset  the  ' '  race  problem  at  the  South, ' '  the 
subject  before  you  for  discussion  this  afternoon.  In  the  days 
of  reconstruction  the  teachings  of  political  science  as  such,  and 
of  ethnology,  its  handmaid,  had  made  but  little  impression  in 
America.  Political  science  had  been  taught,  it  is  true  in  Wil- 
liam and  Mary  College,  to  Jefferson  and  other  Virginia  states- 


98  Annates  of  the  American  Academy. 

men  prior  to  the  Revolution,  and  there  were,  prior  to  i860, 
in  a  few  scattered  American  colleges,  solitary  professors  lectur- 
ing occasionally  on  the  subject,  but  great  schools  of  polit- 
ical science  and  great  academies  like  this  are  of  recent 
growth. 

This  Academy  and  its  co-laborers  did  not  come  too  soon; 
they  did  not  enter  the  field  before  the  harvest  was  ripe.  As 
our  country  expands  it  has  need  for  wider  knowledge.  It 
is  dealing  now  not  only  with  its  Negroes  in  the  South,  but 
with  Cuban  and  Porto  Rican  and  Philippine  populations, 
and  it  needs  not  only  accurate  knowledge  of  all  these  peo- 
ples, but,  facing  as  we  do  a  future  that  will  bring  to  us 
questions  as  momentous  as  they  will  be  novel,  the  time  has 
come  when  we  must  search  carefully  for  and  familiarize  our 
people  with  the  lessons  of  our  own  history,  that  our  experi- 
ence may  be  a  lamp  to  guide  our  feet.  You  gentlemen  of 
this  Academy  have  set  yourselves  to  that  work,  and  I  am  very 
sure  you  will  do  it  fearlessly.  The  task  you  have  set  your- 
self requires  high  thinking  and  bold  speaking.  Where 
our  fathers  acted  wisely  you  will  hold  up  their  example  to 
imitation.  Where  they  made  mistakes,  you  will  not  hesi- 
tate to  point  them  out. 

Professor  Cope,  the  great  naturalist  of  your  University, 
was  a  pioneer  in  the  field  you  are  exploring.  A  few  years 
ago  he  made  a  notable  contribution  to  the  discussion  of  the 
race  problem  you  are  to  consider  this  evening.  It  was  a 
series  of  articles  published  in  the  Open  Court,  a  Chicago 
periodical,  discussing,  from  the  standpoint  of  a  naturalist, 
the  differences  between  the  white  man  and  the  Negro.  He 
showed  the  inferiority  of  the  Negro,  and  contended  that  the 
Mulatto  was  in  many  respects,  which  he  carefully  pointed 
out,  inferior  to  both  his  parents.  Then  he  left  the  firm 
ground  of  science  on  which  he  was  at  home,  and  surmised 
that  intermarriage  would  hereafter  become  common  in  the 
South.  If  this  surmise  should  be  correct,  then  there  would 
follow,  as  he  had  proven,  the  destruction  of  a  large  portion 


The  Race  Problem  at  the  South  99 

of  the  finest  race  upon  earth,  the  whites  of  the  South.  To 
prevent  this  result  he  argued  that  the  government  could 
well  afford,  whatever  might  be  the  cost,  to  deport  all  the 
Negroes  from  the  South.  This  admixture  of  the  races  let  us 
hope  will  not  take  place,  and  deportation  is  impossible. 

If  these  articles  had  been  written  and  published  in  i860 
who  can  estimate  the  opprobium  that  would  have  been 
heaped  upon  Professor  Cope  and  the  University  of  Pennsyl- 
vania. But  in  the  nineties  the  publication  excited  no 
comment.  It  was  simply  a  scientific  contribution  to  the 
discussion  of  the  Negro  question.  The  day  of  free  thought 
and  free  speech  even  on  our  race  problem  had  come. 

So  I  am  free  here  and  now  to  say  to  you,  and  you  will 
consider  it  for  what  it  is  worth,  that  in  my  opinion  the 
granting  of  universal  suffrage  to  the  Negro  was  the  mistake 
of  the  nineteenth  century.  I  say  that,  believing  myself  to 
be  a  friend  to  the  Negro,  willing  and  anxious  that  he  shall 
have  fair  play  and  the  fullest  opportunity  under  the  law  to 
develop  himself  to  his  utmost  capacity.  (  Suffrage  wronged 
the  Negro,  because  he  could  only  develop  by  practicing 
industry  and  economy,  while  learning  frugality.  It  was  a 
mistake  to  tempt  him  away  from  the  field  of  labor  into  the 
field  of  politics,  where,  as  a  rule,  he  could  understand 
nothing  that  was  taught  him  except  the  color  line.  Negro 
suffrage  was  a  wrong  to  the  white  man  of  the  South,  for  it 
brought  him  face  to  face  with  a  situation  in  which  he 
concluded,  after  some  years  of  trial,  that  in  order  to  preserve 
his  civilization  he  must  resort  to  fraud  in  elections,  and  fraud 
in  elections,  wherever  it  may  be  practiced,  is  like  the  deadly 
upas  tree  ;  it  scatters  its  poisons  in  every  direction.  Uni- 
versal suffrage  in  the  South  has  demoralized  our  politics 
there.  It  has  created  a  bitterness  between  the  present 
generations  of  whites  and  blacks  that  had  never  existed 
between  the  ex-slave  and  his  former  master.  These  are 
among  the  complications  of  the  problem  you  are  studying. 
Another  crying  evil  that  has  resulted  to  the  people  of  the 


ioo  Annals  of  the;  American  Academy 

South  and  of  the  whole  Union  is  that  we  now  have  an  abso- 
lutely solid  South,  where  the  necessity  for  white  supremacy 
is  so  dominant  that  no  political  question  can  be  discussed  on 
its  merits,  and  whites  do  not  divide  themselves  between  the 
two  national  parties.  What  we  need  in  the  Southern  States 
to-day,  above  all  things,  is  two  political  parties,  strong 
enough  and  able  to  deal  with  each  other  at  arms' -length. 

The  Negro's  prospects  for  improvement,  his  development 
since  emancipation,  his  industrial  conditions,  his  relation  to 
crime,  the  scanty  results  of  the  system  of  education  that  has 
been  pursued,  how  that  system  can  be  bettered — all  these 
questions  as  they  exist  to-day  are  before  you  for  debate.  Here 
and  there,  among  Southern  people,  are  some  who  in  despair 
are  advocating  that  no  more  money  be  spent  by  the  whites  for 
the  education  of  the  blacks.  This,  I  am  glad  to  say,  is  not  the 
prevailing  sentiment.  The  Southern  people,  as  a  rule,  believe 
that  we  should  continue  to  strive  for  the  development  of  the 
Negro  and  the  lifting  of  him  up  to  a  higher  plane,  where  he 
may  be  more  useful  to  himself  and  to  the  state.  Most  of  us 
are  looking  hopefully  to  that  system  which  is  now  being  so 
successfully  practiced  in  different  Southern  schools,  and 
notably  at  Tuskegee,  Alabama.  Booker  T.  Washington,  the 
president  of  that  institution,  is  one  of  the  remarkable  men 
of  to-day.  A  paper  from  his  pen  was  to  have  been  read 
before  you.1  Unfortunately  it  has  not  reached  you  yet,  but 
it  will  come.  Every  opinion  he  may  express,  and  every 
fact  he  may  state,  is  entitled  to  most  careful  consideration. 
Two  eminent  speakers  are  here  to  discuss  the  questions 
which  I  have  only  attempted  to  indicate,  and  I  will  detain 
you  no  longer. 

This  meeting  is  open  for  business. 

Our  next  speaker  is  Dr.  George  T.  Winston,  president  of 
the  North  Carolina  College  of  Agriculture  and  Mechanic 
Arts.     President  Winston  is  a  Southerner,  a  native  of  North 

1  This  paper  was  not  received  in  time  for  publication  in  this  volume,  but  will 
appear  in  a  later  issue  of  the  Annals.— Editor. 


The  Race  Problem  at  the  South  ioi 

Carolina,  his  father  was  a  slave  owner ;  he  himself  is  a 
graduate  of  Cornell,  and  there  were  two  Negroes  in  his  class. 
He  has  enjoyed  exceptional  opportunities  for  study  and  for 
understanding  the  subject  of  which  he  will  speak  to  you, 
which  is  "The  Relation  of  the  Whites  to  the  Negroes."  I 
introduce  Dr.  Winston. 


THE  RELATION  OF  THE  WHITES 
TO  THE  NEGROES.  BY  PRESIDENT 
GEORGE  T.  WINSTON,  LL.D.,  NORTH 
CAROLINA  COLLEGE  OF  AGRICULT- 
URE     AND     MECHANIC     ARTS 


(103) 


THE   RELATION   OF  THE  WHITES   TO   THE 
NEGROES. 

By  President  George  T.  Winston, 

North  Carolina  College  of  Agriculture  and  Mechanic  Arts. 

Since  the  abolition  of  slavery  a  great  change  has  taken 
place  in  the  relations  of  the  whites  to  the  Negroes  in  the 
Southern  states.  This  change  has  been  one  not  merely  of 
ownership  and  legal  authority,  but  of  personal  interest,  of 
moral  influence,  of  social  and  industrial  relations. 

To-day  there  is  practically  no  social  intercourse  between 
the  two  races,  excepting  such  as  exists  between  the  Negroes 
and  the  most  degraded  whites.  It  was  far  different  in 
slavery.  Then  the  two  races  mingled  freely  together,  not 
on  terms  of  social  equality,  but  in  very  extended  and 
constant  social  intercourse.  In  almost  every  household  the 
children  of  the  two  races  played  and  frolicked  together,  or 
hunted,  fished  or  swam  together  in  the  fields,  streams  and 
forests.  During  my  childhood  and  boyhood  the  greater 
portion  of  my  play-time  was  spent  in  games  and  sports  with 
Negroes.  Scarcely  any  pleasure  was  so  great  to  a  southern 
child  as  playing  with  Negroes.  In  the  long  summer  evenings 
we  would  play  and  romp  until  bed-time  in  the  spacious  yard 
surrounding  the  house,  or  in  the  garden  or  neighboring 
fields.  I  remember  well  how  the  evenings  would  fly  by, 
and  how  my  mother  would  grant  repeated  extensions  of 
time,  "just  to  play  one  more  game  of  fox-and-geese,  or  hide- 
the-switch."  Some  of  the  songs  that  we  sang  and  some  of 
the  games  that  we  played,  part  singing,  part  acting,  part 
dancing,  still  linger  in  my  memory  and  carry  me  back  to  the 
happiness  of  childhood.  Always  in  my  childhood  memories, 
especially  in  happy  memories,  I  find  associated  together  my 
mother,  my  home,  and  the  Negro  slaves. 

(105) 


106  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

During  the  winter  evenings,  when  it  was  disagreeable  out 
of  doors,  I  would  get  permission  for  four  or  five  Negro  boys 
and  girls  to  play  with  me  in  the  library,  or  in  the  nursery. 
Here  we  would  play  indoor  games  ;  jack-straws,  blind-man's- 
buff,  checks,  checkers,  pantomime,  geography  puzzles,  con- 
undrum matches  and  spelling  bees.  Frequently  I  would 
read  the  Negroes  fairy  stories,  or  show  them  pictures  in  the 
magazines  and  books  of  art.  I  remember  how  we  used  to 
linger  over  a  beautiful  picture  of  Lord  William  Russell 
bidding  adieu  to  his  family  before  going  to  execution  ;  and 
how  in  boyish  way  I  would  tell  the  Negroes  the  story  of  his 
unhappy  fate  and  his  wife's  devotion.  Another  favorite 
picture  was  the  coronation  of  Queen  Victoria.  How  we 
delighted  in  "Audubon's  Birds "  and  in  the  beautifully 
colored  plates  and  animals  in  the  government  publications 
on  natural  history.  The  pleasure  was  by  no  means  one-sided. 
To  our  hotch-pot  of  amusement  and  instruction  the  Negroes 
contributed  marvelous  tales  of  birds  and  animals,  which 
more  than  offset  my  familiar  reminiscences  of  Queen  Victoria 
and  Lord  Russell. 

It  was  a  great  privilege  during  slavery  for  the  white 
children  to  visit  Negro  cabins  at  night  and  listen  to  their  folk 
lore.  Those  delightful  stories  immortalized  by  Joel  Chandler 
Harris,  in  the  character  of  Uncle  Remus,  I  heard  many  times 
in  my  youth,  and  many  others  besides  equally  delightful. 
There  is  a  marvelous  attraction  between  a  white  child  and  a 
Negro  ;  even  between  a  little  child  and  a  grown  Negro.  I 
always  found  it  a  pleasure  to  sit  in  the  cabins  and  watch 
them  at  work.  It  was  a  pleasure  just  to  be  with  them.  I 
have  eaten  many  a  meal  with  my  father's  slaves  in  their 
cabins,  always  treated  with  consideration,  respect  and  affec- 
tion, but  not  greater  than  I  myself  felt  for  the  master  and 
mistress  of  the  humble  cabin.  My  mother  would  have 
punished  severely  any  disrespect  or  rudeness  on  my  part 
toward  the  older  Negroes.  I  would  not  have  dared  to  call 
them  by  their  names.     It  was  always   "Uncle  Tom"  or 


Relation  of  the  Whites  to  the  Negroes    107 

"Aunt  Susan,"  when  I  addressed  them.  This  form  of 
appellation  was  common  in  the  South  between  whites  and 
blacks.  Even  a  strange  Negro,  whose  name  was  not  known, 
however  humble  he  might  be,  was  saluted  on  the  high  road, 
when  passed  by  a  respectable  white  person,  with  the  friendly- 
greeting  of  "  Howdye,  Uncle,"  or  "  Howdye,  Auntie." 

Social  intercourse  between  white  and  black  during  slavery 
was  not  confined  to  children.  Not  infrequently  the  Negro 
women  would  come  to  the  ' '  White  House  ' '  to  see  the  mis- 
tress, often  in  the  evenings,  sitting  and  chatting  in  the  nur- 
sery or  the  ladies'  sitting  room.  Visits  to  the  slave  cabins 
were  made  regularly,  oftentimes  daily,  by  the  white  women 
of  the  household,  who  went  not  merely  to  visit  the  sick  and 
inspect  the  children,  to  advise  and  direct  about  work  and 
household  matters,  but  to  show  their  personal  interest  in 
and  regard  for  the  Negroes  themselves,  not  as  slaves,  nor 
workers,  but  as  individuals,  as  human  beings,  and  some- 
times as  dear  friends.  In  short,  a  social  visit  was  made  ; 
not  upon  terms  of  social  equality,  but  still  a  social  visit,  dur- 
ing which  the  news  of  the  plantation  or  neighborhood,  and  oc- 
casionally of  the  larger  world,  was  exchanged  and  discussed. 
This  custom  existed  to  some  extent  even  on  large  planta- 
tions, where  the  slaves  were  more  isolated  and  herded  to- 
gether in  larger  numbers.  On  small  farms,  where  the  races 
were  about  equal  numerically,  and  in  all  households  there 
was  constant  and  very  familiar  contact  between  white  and 
black.  The  white  women  in  Southern  households  usually 
aided  and  directed  the  work  of  the  Negroes.  The  mistress 
sewed  or  cut  garments  in  the  same  room  with  the  slave  seam- 
stresses. The  lady's  maid  slept  upon  a  couch  or  pallet  in 
her  lady's  chamber,  or  the  one  adjoining.  The  cooks, 
dining-room  servants,  nurses,  laundresses,  coachmen,  house- 
boys,  gardeners,  shoemakers,  carpenters,  blacksmiths  and 
mechanics  generally  were  in  daily  enjoyment  of  a  very  con- 
siderable degree  of  social  intercourse  with  the  white  race. 
They  entered  into  the  traditions  and  spirit  of  the  family  to 


io8  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

which  they  belonged,  defended  its  name  and  its  honor,  ac- 
cepted in  a  rude  way  its  ideas  of  courtesy,  morality  and 
religion,  and  thus  became  to  a  considerable  degree  inheritors 
of  the  civilization  of  the  white  race.  It  was  this  semi-social 
intercourse  between  the  two  races,  without  ai^  approach  to 
social  equality,  this  daily  and  hourly  contact  producing  per- 
sonal interest,  friendship  and  affection,  added  to  the  industrial 
training  of  slavery  that  transformed  the  Negro  so  quickly 
from  a  savage  to  a  civilized  man. 

(  The  one  great  evil  connected  with  race  familiarity,  the 
evil  of  licentiousness  and  miscegenation,  while  degrading 
to  the  white  race  was  not  entirely  harmful  to  the  Negro. 
Nearly  all  the  leaders  of  the  Negro  race,  both  during  slavery 
and  since,  have  been  Mulattoes  ;  and  the  two  really  great 
men  credited  to  the  Negro  race  in  the  United  States  have 
been  the  sons  of  white  fathers,  and  strongly  marked  by  the 
mental  and  moral  qualities  of  the  white  race.  The  Mulatto 
is  quicker,  brighter,  and  more  easily  refined  than  the  Negro. 
There  is  a  general  opinion  among  Southern  people  that  he 
is  inferior  morally;  but  I  believe  that  his  only  inferiority  is 
physical  and  vital.  It  cannot  be  denied  that  the  Negro  race 
has  been  very  greatly  elevated  by  its  Mulatto  members.  In- 
deed, if  you  strike  from  its  records  all  that  Mulattoes  have 
said  and  done,  little  would  be  left.  Wherever  work  requir- 
ing refinement,  extra  intelligence  and  executive  ability  is 
performed,  you  will  find  it  usually  directed  by  Mulattoes. 

But  the  social  intercourse  between  the  races  in  the  South, 
which  was  so  helpful  to  the  blacks,  has  now  practically 
ceased.  The  children  of  this  generation  no  longer  play  and 
frolic  together.  White  ladies  no  longer  visit  Negro  cabins. 
The  familiar  salutation  of  "Uncle"  or  "Auntie"  is  no 
longer  heard.  The  lady's  maid  sleeps  no  more  by  the  bed- 
side of  her  mistress.  The  Southern  woman  with  her  help- 
less little  children  in  solitary  farm  house  no  longer  sleeps 
secure  in  the  absence  of  her  husband  with  doors  unlocked 
but  safely  guarded  by  black  men  whose  lives  would  be  freely 


Relation  of  the  Whites  to  the  Negroes    109 

given  in  her  defence.  But  now,  when  a  knock  is  heard  at 
the  door,  she  shudders  with  nameless  horror.  The  black 
brute  is  lurking  in  the  dark,  a  monstrous  beast,  crazed  with 
lust.  His  ferocity  is  almost  demoniacal.  A  mad  bull  or  a 
tiger  could  scarcely  be  more  brutal.  A  whole  community 
is  now  frenzied  with  horror,  with  blind  and  furious  rage  for 
vengeance.  A  stake  is  driven  ;  the  wretched  brute,  covered 
with  oil,  bruised  and  gashed,  beaten  and  hacked  and  maimed, 
amid  the  jeers  and  shouts  and  curses,  the  tears  of  anger  and 
of  joy,  the  prayers  and  the  maledictions  of  thousands  of  civil- 
ized people,  in  the  sight  of  school-houses,  court-houses  and 
churches  is  burned  to  death.  Since  the  abolition  of  slavery 
and  the  growing  up  of  a  new  generation  of  Negroes,  crimes 
that  are  too  hideous  to  describe  have  been  committed  every 
month,  every  week,  frequently  every  day,  against  the  help- 
less women  and  children  of  the  white  race,  crimes  that  were 
unknown  in  slavery.  And,  in  turn,  cruelties  have  been  in- 
flicted upon  Negroes  by  whole  communities  of  whites,  which, 
if  attempted  during  slavery,  would  have  been  prevented  at 
any  sacrifice.  I  do  not  hesitate  to  say  that  more  horrible 
crimes  have  been  committed  by  the  generation  of  Negroes 
that  have  grown  up  in  the  South  since  slavery  than  by  the 
six  preceding  generations  in  slavery.  And  also  that  the 
worst  cruelties  of  slavery  all  combined  for  two  centuries  were 
not  equal  to  the  savage  barbarities  inflicted  in  retaliation 
upon  the  Negroes  by  the  whites  during  the  last  twenty  years. 
This  condition  of  things  is  too  horrible  to  last.  In  must  grow 
better  ;  or  else  grow  worse,  and  by  its  own  fury  destroy  both 
black  and  white. 

Between  the  older  generations  in  the  South  there  is  still 
warm  affection.  Whenever  I  visit  ni}'  old  home,  all  the 
Negroes  that  are  able,  come  to  see  me,  many  traveling  con- 
siderable distances.  The  last  time  I  was  there  my  nurse  and 
playmate,  a  woman  of  fifty  years,  about  six  years  my  elder, 
threw  her  arms  around  me  and  wept  like  a  child,  completely 
overcome  with  emotion.     She  was  honest,  virtuous,  industri- 


no  Annals  op  the  American  Academy 

ous,  intelligent,  affectionate  and  faithful.  She  had  been 
raised  from  childhood  by  my  mother  and  had  slept  every 
night  in  my  mother's  bed  room.  I  am  sure  that  every 
member  of  my  father's  family  would  have  risked  his  life  to 
protect  her.  And  she  would  have  greatly  preferred  death 
to  seeing  misfortune  or  disaster  visit  our  family.  My  youngest 
brother's  nurse,  dying  about  ten  years  after  emancipation, 
made  her  will  and  left  her  little  store  of  goods  and  property, 
worth  perhaps  a  hundred  dollars,  to  her  white  nursling, 
"  little  Master  Robert."  A  few  days  ago  a  Negro  man  was 
pardoned  from  the  State  penitentiary  in  North  Carolina,  by 
the  Governor.  The  following  letter  secured  his  pardon.  It 
was  written  by  his  former  master  and  playmate,  a  captain  in 
the  Confederate  army,  an  ex-member  of  Congress,  a  Demo- 
cratic member  of  the  recent  State  Legislature  : 

To  His  Excellency  Honorable  Chari.ES  B.  Aycock,  Governor  of 
North  Carolina. 

Dear  Sir  :  I  respectfully  and  earnestly  petition  you  to  pardon 
William  Alexander,  a  Negro  convicted  of  burglary  in  the  year  1889,  in 
Mecklenburg  County.  William  was  born  on  my  father's  plantation, 
and  is  about  fifty-eight  or  fifty-nine  years  old,  one  or  two  years  my 
junior.  I  need  only  state  that  his  father  was  our  coachman  and  his 
mother  our  cook,  to  show  you  my  opportunity  was  good  for  knowing 
him.  He  was  my  slave,  and  his  father  and  mother  died  on  my  plan- 
tation. William  was  not  smart,  or,  to  use  a  plantation  term,  was  less 
bright  than  any  of  the  young  Negroes  on  the  plantation.  Knowing 
both  of  the  Negroes  connected  with  him  in  the  burglary,  I  feel  no 
hesitation  in  assuring  you  that  I  believe  that  they  persuaded  him  to 
join  them.  William  has  now  served  about  twelve  years.  This  is  an 
excessive  punishment  for  a  Negro  of  a  low  order  of  intelligence.  If 
he  came  of  a  bad  family,  I  would  not  ask  his  pardon.  His  family  is 
as  good  as  any  Negro  family  in  this  state.  He  is  the  only  one  that 
has  ever  been  indicted  for  crime.  I  could  get  others  to  sign  a  petition, 
but  it  would  be  a  favor  for  me,  not  him,  for  an  ordinary  Negro  con- 
fined in  the  penitentiary  for  twelve  years  is  a  forgotten  man.  Gov- 
ernor, I  pray  you  to  pardon  William  Alexander  ;  and,  if  he  will,  he 
can  retnrn  to  my  plantation  where  the  friend  of  his  boyhood  will  give 
him  a  home. 

Very  respectfully, 

Raleigh,  N.  C,  March  26,  1901.  S.  B.  Alexander. 


Relation  op  the;  Whites  to  the  Negroes     hi 

The  industrial  relations  of  the  races  have  also  undergone 
great  changes  in  the  South,  though  not  so  marked  as  the 
changes  in  social  and  personal  relations.  Under  slavery 
almost  all  the  labor  of  the  South  was  performed  by  Negroes, 
or  by  Negroes  and  whites  working  side  by  side.  The  South 
was  lacking  in  manufactures,  and  used  little  machinery. 
Its  demand  for  skilled  labor  was  not  large,  but  what  de- 
mand existed  was  supplied  mainly  by  Negroes.  Negro 
carpenters,  plasterers,  bricklayers, blacksmiths,  wheelwrights, 
painters,  harnessmakers,  tanners,  millers,  weavers,  barrel- 
makers,  basketmakers,  shoemakers,  chairmakers,  coachmen, 
spinners,  seamstresses,  housekeepers,  gardeners,  cooks, 
laundresses,  embroiderers,  maids  of  all  work,  could  be 
found  in  every  community,  and  frequently  on  a  single  plan- 
tation. Skilled  labor  was  more  profitable  than  unskilled, 
and  therefore  every  slave  was  made  as  skilful  as  was  possi- 
ble under  a  slave  system.  The  young  Negroes  were  brought 
up  to  labor,  from  an  early  age.  The  smartest  girls  were 
trained  to  domestic  service  in  its  various  branches,  and 
became  practically  members  of  the  family,  so  far  as  careful 
training  was  concerned.  Many  of  them  could  sew,  knit, 
crochet,  embroider,  cut,  fit  and  make  garments,  clean  up 
house,  wash  and  iron,  spin  and  weave,  even  more  skilfully 
than  the  mistress  who  had  taught  them.  All  the  garments 
that  I  wore  in  childhood  were  made  by  Negroes  or  by  my 
mother,  with  the  single  exception  of  the  hat.  Negro  lads 
who  showed  aptitude  for  trades,  were  hired  out  under  a  sort 
of  apprentice  system,  and  taught  to  be  skilful  as  carpenters, 
masons,  smiths,  and  the  like.  The  Negro  artisans  were 
very  jealous  of  their  rights,  and  stood  upon  their  profes- 
sional skill  and  knowledge.  I  remember,  one  day,  my 
father,  who  was  a  lawyer,  offered  some  suggestions  to  .one  of 
r  his  slaves,  a  fairly- good  carpenter,  who  was  building  us  a  barn. 
The  old  Negro  heard  him  with  ill-concealed  disgust,  and 
replied:  "Look  here,  Master,  you'se  a  first-rate  lawyer, 
no  doubt ;  but  you  don't  know  nothing  'tall  'bout  carpenter- 


ii2  AnnaivS  of  the;  American  Academy 

ing.  You  better  go  back  to  your  lawbooks."  The  most 
accomplished  housemaid,  maid-of-all-work,  laundress,  nurse, 
dining-room  servant,  in  our  household  was  a  woman  named 
Emily,  and  the  most  accomplished  man-of-all-work,  carpen- 
ter, coachman,  'possum-hunter,  fisherman,  story-teller,  boy 
amuser,  was  Emily's  brother,  Andrew.  They  had  been 
given  to  my  father  in  his  youth  by  my  grandfather,  and  had 
attended  him  to  college,  working  in  the  dining-room,  to  pay 
for  his  education.  They  were  present  at  my  father's  wed- 
ding, and  for  twenty  years  remained  members  of  the  house- 
hold, exceedingly  useful  and  skilful  ;  and,  I  may  add,  ex- 
ceedingly privileged  characters.  They  far  surpassed  in 
efficiency  and  versatility  any  white  laborers  in  the  county. 
I  remember,  one  Sunday,  the  family  came  home  earlier  than 
usual  from  church,  there  being  no  services  on  account  of  the 
illness  of  the  minister.  On  entering  his  bed  room  my 
father  beheld  a  strange  and  yet  familiar  looking  Negro 
arrayed  in  dress-suit  standing  in  front  of  the  mirror,  with 
arms  akimbo,  and  swallow-tails  of  the  coat  switching  from 
side  to  side  in  token  of  pride  and  satisfaction.  It  was 
Emily,  arrayed  in  her  master's  best  suit,  enjoying  a  new 
sensation.  No  punishment  was  inflicted  on  her.  Nor  do  I 
remember  that  any  of  my  father's  slaves  were  ever  punished, 
except  such  switching  as  was  given  the  children,  on  which 
occasions  I  was  usually  present,  a  most  unwilling  partici- 
pant and  fellow- victim. 

When  emancipation  came  at  the  close  of  the  Civil  "War,  it 
was  understood  by  the  average  Negro  to  mean  freedom  from 
labor.  Freedom,  leisure,  idleness  was  now  his  greatest 
pleasure.  How  delightful  it  was  to  tell  old  master  now  that 
he  had  business  in  town  and  couldn't  work  to-day  ;  to  leave 
the  plow  and  hoe  idle  ;  to  meet  other  Negroes  on  the  streets, 
to  spend  the  day  loafing,  chatting,  shouting,  oftentimes 
drinking  and  dancing  or  quarreling  and  fighting.  Sambo 
was  now  a  gentleman  of  leisure,  and  he  enjoyed  it  to  the 
full.     It  was  easy  to  live  in  the  South.     The  mild  climate 


Relation  of  the  Whites  to  the  Negroes     113 

and  fertile  soil,  the  abundance  of  game  in  forest  and  stream, 
the  bountiful  supply  of  wild  fruits,  the  accessibility  of  forests 
with  firewood  free  to  all,  the  openhanded  generosity  and 
universal  carelessness  of  living  made  it  possible  for  the 
average  Negro  to  idle  away  at  least  half  his  time  and  yet  live 
in  tolerable  comfort. 

The  national  government,  to  guard  against  distress  among 
the  Negroes  and  to  prevent  oppression  by  the  whites,  neither 
of  which  was  at  all  possible,  now  established  throughout  the 
South,  for  the  distribution  of  food  and  clothing  and  the 
administration  of  justice  between  the  races,  the  Freedman's 
Bureau.  This  institution  was  in  every  respect  most  unfortu- 
nate. The  Negro  ran  awajr  from  his  old  master's  cornfield 
and  his  appeals  to  work  in  order  to  enjoy  the  free  bounty  of 
the  federal  government.  I  knew  a  Negro  to  walk  one 
hundred  miles  in  order  to  obtain  half  a  bushel  of  corn  meal 
from  the  bureau.  In  the  time  required  he  might  have 
earned  by  labor  four  and  a  half  bushels,  or  nine  times  what 
he  got  by  begging.  But  the  evils  of  idleness,  although 
great,  would  soon  have  passed  away,  if  the  two  races  had 
been  left  alone.  The  Southern  whites  were  familiar  with 
and  very  tolerant  of  the  Negro's  weaknesses  and  petty  vices. 
They  looked  upon  him  with  sympathy  and  sorrow,  with 
friendship  and  affection,  rather  than  with  anger,  resentment, 
and  hostility.  They  were  anxious  to  see  him  go  to  work 
even  more  diligently  than  in  slavery,  acquire  property,  and 
improve  his  moral  and  physical  condition.  The  races  still 
remained  very  close  together,  in  their  daily  lives,  interests 
and  affections.  They  might  have  worked  out  a  future  along 
lines  far  different  from  those  they  are  now  following.  It 
was  decreed  otherwise  by  fate. 

The  bestowal  of  political  rights  upon  the  Negro,  the 
disfranchisement  of  almost  every  prominent  white  man  in 
the  South,  the  migration  from  the  North  of  political  carpet- 
baggers and  their  manipulation  of  the  Negro  vote,  the  Civil 
Rights   Bill,  the   Force   Bill,  the  zeal  of  educational   and 


ii4  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

religious  missionaries,  most  of  whom  preached  and  practiced 
the  social  and  civil  equality  of  the  races  ;  in  short,  the  dark, 
dismal  and  awful  night  of  Reconstruction,  following  swift 
upon  the  storm  of  Civil  War  with  its  unparalleled  destruc- 
tion of  life  and  property,  now  threatened  the  very  founda- 
tions of  civilization  in  all  the  Southern  states.  The  bonds 
between  the  races  were  broken  at  last.  The  Negro  did  not 
endorse  all  the  demands  that  were  made  in  his  behalf.  He 
knew  they  were  impossible.  Still  he  was  profoundly  in- 
fluenced by  them.  In  slavery  he  was  like  an  animal  in 
harness ;  well  trained,  gentle  and  affectionate ;  in  early 
freedom  the  harness  was  off,  but  still  the  habit  of  obedience 
and  the  force  of  affection  endured  and  prevented  a  run-away. 
In  Reconstruction  came  a  consciousness  of  being  unhar- 
nessed, unhitched,  unbridled  and  unrestrained.  The  wildest 
excesses  followed.  The  machinery  of  government  was 
seized  in  every  Southern  state  by  men  recently  slaves,  now 
guided  by  political  adventures.  Southern  halls  of  legislation, 
once  glorified  by  the  eloquence  of  Patrick  Henry,  the 
wisdom  of  Marshall,  or  the  patriotism  of  Washington,  now 
resounded  with  the  drunken  snoriugs  or  the  unmeaning 
gibberish  of  Cuffee  and  Sambo.  Negro  strumpets  in  silks 
and  satins  led  wild  orgies  at  inaugural  balls  in  marble  halls 
that  blushed  and  closed  their  eyes.  "Uncle  Tom"  and 
"Aunt  Susan  "  were  now  entirely  vanished.  The  family 
cook  now  demanded  to  be  known  as  Mrs.  Jackson,  and  the 
chambermaid  as  Miss  Marguerite.  I  know  an  unmarried 
Negress,  about  twenty-five  years  of  age,  the  mother  of  three 
illegitimate  children,  who  requires  her  own  children  to  call 
her  on  all  occasions,  "  Miss  Mary."  It  was  not  a  time  for 
the  learning  of  new  trades  by  the  emancipated  race.  It  was 
not  a  time  for  new  industries,  or  increased  efficiency  of  labor. 
The  Negro  was  intoxicated  with  the  license  of  freedom  ;  the 
North  was  blinded  by  sentimentality  and  the  passions  of 
war  ;  the  South  was  fighting  for  civilization  and  existence. 
It  is   all   over  now.     I   forbear  to  characterize   it  further. 


Relation  of  the  Whites  to  the  Negroes     115 

Some  day  the  historian,  the  poet,  the  painter,  the  dramatist 
will  picture  Reconstruction,  and  will  make  the  saddest 
picture  in  the  annals  of  the  English-speaking  race. 

But  Reconstruction  is  ended  at  last.  For  the  first  time 
since  1870  the  National  House  of  Representatives  contains 
not  a  single  Negro. 

For  the  first  time  in  our  history  the  American  Negro  is 
almost  friendless.  The  North,  tired  of  Negro  politicians 
and  Negro  beggars,  is  beginning  to  say  :  "  We  have  helped 
the  Negro  enough  ;  let  him  now  help  himself  and  work  out 
his  own  salvation."  The  South,  worn  out  with  strife  over 
the  Negro  and  supporting  with  difficulty  its  awful  burden  of 
Negro  ignorance,  inefficiency  and  criminality,  is  beginning 
to  ask  whether  the  race  is  really  capable  of  development,  or 
is  a  curse  and  a  hindrance  in  the  way  of  Southern  progress 
and  civilization. 

The  two  races  are  drifting  apart.  They  were  closer 
together  in  slavery  than  they  have  been  since.  Old  time 
sympathies,  friendships  and  affections  created  by  two 
centuries  of  slavery,  are  rapidly  passing  away.  A  single 
generation  of  freedom  has  almost  destroyed  them.  Unless  a 
change  is  made,  coming  generations  will  be  separated  by 
active  hatred  and  hostility.  The  condition  of  the  Negro  is 
indeed  pitiful  ;  and  his  prospects  for  the  future  are  dark  and 
gloomy.  There  is  no  solution  of  the  problem,  unless  it  is 
dealt  with  from  the  standpoint  of  reason  and  experience, 
without  prejudice  or  fanaticism. 

The  Negro  is  a  child  race.  If  isolated  from  the  world  and 
left  to  himself,  he  might  slowly  grow  into  manhood  along 
separate  lines  and  develop  a  Negro  civilization  ;  but  in  the 
United  States  such  isolation  and  such  development  are  quite 
impossible.  The  Negro  here  is  bound  to  be  under  the 
tutelage  and  control  of  the  whites.  No  legal  enactment,  no 
political  agitation,  no  scheme  of  education  can  alter  this 
fact.  It  is  better  for  the  Negro  that  it  should  be  so  ;  better 
that  he  should  be  dispersed  among  the  white  people,  living 


n6  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

with  them  and  learning  their  ways,  than  to  be  deported  to 
Africa,  or  segregated  somewhere  in  America,  to  work  out 
slowly  a  separate  and  distinct  Negro  civilization. 

The  tutelage  of  the  Negro  is  not  yet  complete.  It  lasted 
through  six  generations  of  slavery,  directed  by  Southern 
whites.  It  has  continued  through  one  generation  of  freedom, 
directed  by  Northern  whites,  acting  through  Federal 
legislation,  through  Federal  courts,  through  political,  edu- 
cational and  religious  missionaries  working  among  the 
Negroes  in  the  Southern  states.  The  folly  and  the  futility 
of  Northern  tutelage  is  now  fully  demonstrated  ;  and  the 
Negro  is  again  under  the  tutelage  of  the  South,  to  remain 
there  until  the  race  problem  is  finally  settled. 

The  real  question  is  not  one  of  tutelage  versus  self- 
development,  but  whether  the  necessary  tutelage  of  the 
Negro  under  the  white  race  shall  be  one  of  friendship  and 
sympathy  or  one  of  prejudice  and  hostility.  To  such  a 
question  only  one  answer  is  possible.  It  would  be  a  cruelty 
greater  than  slavery  to  leave  this  helpless  race,  this  child 
race,  to  work  out  its  own  salvation  in  fierce  and  hostile 
competition  with  the  strongest  and  best  developed  race  on 
the  globe.  The  Negro  can  expect  no  peculiar  development. 
He  must  aim  at  white  civilization  ;  and  must  reach  it 
through  the  support,  guidance  and  control  of  the  white 
people  among  whom  he  lives.  He  must  regain  the  active 
friendship  and  affection  of  the  Southern  whites.  He  will  do 
so  if  let  alone  by  the  North.  The  South  once  liked  him  and 
loved  him,  and  will  do  so  again  if  he  will  permit  and  deserve 
it.  The  North,  through  force  of  arms  and  legal  enactment, 
has  given  him  physical  freedom  ;  but  moral  and  intellectual 
freedom  must  come  through  the  help  of  the  descendants  of 
his  former  masters.  If  this  help  be  not  given,  there  is  no 
hope  for  the  race.  Against  the  prejudice  and  passion,  the 
neglect  and  oppression,  the  competition  and  hostility  which 
will  inevitably  result  from  a  continuance  of  the  relations 
now  existing  between  the  two  races  in  the  South  the  Negro 


Relation  of  the  Whites  to  the  Negroes    117 

will  be  ground  to  powder.  His  progress  depends  absolutely 
upon  the  restoration  of  friendl}'-  relations  to  the  whites. 
Nor  is  this  a  matter  of  easy  accomplishment.  Two  things 
are  requisite  ; 

1.  The  withdrawal  of  the  Negro  from  politics. 

2.  His  increased  efficiency  as  a  laborer. 

The  withdrawal  of  the  Negro  from  politics  is  now  being 
accomplished  by  legislation  in  the  various  Southern  States. 
If  this  is  interrupted  by  the  North,  and  the  old  battle  of 
Reconstruction  fought  again,  the  result  will  be  the  complete 
and  final  estrangement  of  the  two  races,  with  prejudice  and 
hostility  too  intense  to  permit  their  living  peaceably 
together. 

Greater  industrial  efficiency  would  prove  an  everlasting 
bond  between  the  races  in  the  South.  It  is  the  real  key  to. 
the  problem,  I,et  the  Negro  make  himself  indispensable  as 
a  workman,  and  .he  may  rely  upon  the  friendship  and 
affection  of  the  whites.  But  the  best  energies  of  the  race 
since  emancipation  have  been  diverted  from  industrial  fields, 
into  politics,  preaching  and  education.  Until  recently  its. 
leaders  have  not  regarded  industrial  effort  as  a  means  of 
progress.  But  public  sentiment  in  the  South  still  welcomes 
the  Negro  to  every  field  of  labor  that  he  is  capable  of" 
performing.  The  whole  field  of  industry  is  open  to  him. 
The  Southern  whites  are  not  troubled  by  his  efficiency 
but  by  his  inefficiency.  For  a  full  generation  the  Negro  has 
had  opportunity  to  control  every  industry  in  the  South. 
Had  he  devoted  himself,  upon  emancipation,  to  manual 
labor  and  the  purchase  of  land  instead  of  to  politics,  religion 
and  education,  he  would  own  to-day  at  least  one-half  the. 
soil  of  the  Southern  states. 

There  is  abundant  room  for  Northern  philanthropy  in 
helping  to  uplift  the  Southern  Negro.  A  Hampton  Institute, 
or  a  Tuskegee,  should  be  established  in  every  congressional 
district.  But  this  alone  will  not  suffice.  The  Negro  laborer, 
like  the  white  laborer,  needs  the  industrial  training  of  his 


u8  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

daily  employer.  He  needs,  daily  and  hourly,  the  sympathy, 
encouragement,  instruction,  admonition  and  restraint  of  his 
white  employer.  These  are  given  to  the  white  boy  or  girl ; 
and  are  received  usually  with  willingness  and  profit.  But 
such  help  is  not  given  to  the  Negro  ;  nor  is  it  desired. 
Negro  children  are  less  courteous  to  white  people  now  than 
white  children  were  to  Negroes  during  slavery. 

The  Negro  race  is  a  child  race  and  must  remain  in  tutelage 
for  years  to  come  ;  in  tutelage  not  of  colleges  and  universi- 
ties, but  of  industrial  schools,  of  skilled  and  efficient  labor, 
of  character  building  by  honest  work  and  honest  dealing,  of 
good  habits  and  good  manners,  of  respect  for  elders  and 
superiors,  of  daily  employment  on  the  farm,  in  the  house- 
hold, the  shop,  the  forest,  the  factory  and  the  mine.  Slavery 
gave  the  Negro  a  better  industrial  training  than  he  has 
to-day.  Freedom  has  increased  his  zeal  and  his  opportunity, 
but  diminished  his  skill.  The  door  of  his  opportunity  will 
not  always  be  open.  He  must  enter  now.  If  he  do  not, 
he  will  remain  for  a  while  among  the  races  of  the  earth  a 
dull  and  stupid  draught  animal ;  and  finally  will  pass  away, 
incompetent.  But,  with  the  help  of  the  white  race  he  may 
obtain  opportunity  to  develop  his  powers,  he  may  subdue 
his  animal  passions  and  cultivate  his  gentler  emotions,  may 
train  his  physical  strength  into  skill  and  power,  may  grow 
from  childhood  into  mature  manhood  ;  and  in  the  providence 
of  God  may  yet  add  strength  to  the  civilization  of  a  people, 
who,  through  the  tutelage  of  slavery,  with  sorrow  and  tears, 
with  labor  and  anguish,  with  hope  and  charity  brought 
him  from  barbarism  to  civilization,  from  heathenism  to 
christianitv. 


THE  RELATION  OF  THE  NEGROES  TO 
THE  WHITES  IN  THE  SOUTH.  BY 
PROFESSOR  W.  E.  BURGHARDT  DU 
BOIS,     PH.D.,     ATLANTA     UNIVERSITY 


(119) 


THE  RELATION  OF  THE  NEGROES  TO  THE 
WHITES  IN  THE  SOUTH. 

By  Professor  W.  E.  Burghardt  DuBois,  Ph.  D., 

Atlanta  University. 

In  the  discussion  of  great  social  problems  it  is  extremely 
difficult  for  those  who  are  themselves  actors  in  the  drama  to 
avoid  the  attitude  of  partisans  and  advocates.  And  yet  I 
take  it  that  the  examination  of  the  most  serious  of  the  race 
problems  of  America  is  not  in  the  nature  of  a  debate  but 
rather  a  joint  endeavor  to  seek  the  truth  beneath  a  mass  of 
assertion  and  opinion,  of  passion  and  distress.  And  I  trust 
that  whatever  disagreement  may  arise  between  those  who 
view  the  situation  from  opposite  sides  of  the  color  line  will 
be  rather  in  the  nature  of  additional  information  than  of 
contradiction. 

The  world-old  phenomenon  of  the  contact  of  diverse  races 
of  men  is  to  have  new  exemplification  during  the  new 
century.  Indeed  the  characteristic  of  the  age  is  the  contact 
of  European  civilization  with  the  world's  undeveloped 
peoples.  Whatever  we  may  say  of  the  results  of  such 
contact  in  the  past,  it  certainly  forms  a  chapter  in  human 
action  not  pleasant  to  look  back  upon.  War,  murder, 
slavery,  extermination  and  debauchery — this  has  again  and 
again  been  the  result  of  carrying  civilization  and  the  blessed 
gospel  to  the  isles  of  the  sea  and  the  heathen  without  the 
law.  Nor  does  it  altogether  satisfy  the  conscience  of  the 
modern  world  to  be  told  complacently  that  all  this  has  been 
right  and  proper,  the  fated  triumph  of  strength  over  weak- 
ness, of  righteousness  over  evil,  of  superiors  over  inferiors. 
It  would  certainly  be  soothing  if  one  could  readily  believe 
all  this,  and  yet  there  are  too  many  ugly  facts,  for  everything 
to  be  thus  easily  explained  away.  We  feel  and  know  that 
there  are   many   delicate   differences  in    race  psychology, 

(121) 


122  Annans  of  the  American  Academy 

numberless  changes  which  our  crude  social  measurements 
are  not  yet  able  to  follow  minutely,  which  explain  much  of 
history  and  social  development.  At  the  same  time,  too, 
we  know  that  these  considerations  have  never  adequately  ex- 
plained or  excused  the  triumph  of  brute  force  and  cunning 
over  weakness  and  innocence. 

I  It  is  then  the  strife  of  all  honorable  men  of  the  twentieth 
century  to  see  that  in  the  future  competition  of  races,  the 
survival  of  the  fittest  shall  mean  the  triumph  of  the  good, 
the  beautiful  and  the  true  ;  that  we  may  be  able  to  preserve 
for  future  civilization  all  that  is  really  fine  and  noble  and 
strong,  and  not  continue  to  put  a  premium  on  greed  and 
impudence  and  cruelty.  To  bring  this  hope  to  fruition  we 
are  compelled  daily  to  turn  more  and  more  to  a  conscientious 
study  of  the  phenomena  of  race  contact — to  a  study  frank 
and  fair,  and  not  falsified  and  colored  by  our  wishes  or  our 
fears.  And  we  have  here  in  the  South  as  fine  a  field  for 
such  a  study  as  the  world  affords  :  a  field  to  be  sure  which 
the  average  American  scientist  deems  somewhat  beneath  his 
dignity,  and  which  the  average  man  who  is  not  a  scientist 
knows  all  about,  but  nevertheless  a  line  of  study  which  by 
reason  of  the  enormous  race  complications,  with  which  God 
seems  about  to  punish  this  nation,  must  increasingly  claim 
our  sober  attention,  study  and  thought.  We  must  ask : 
What  are  the  actual  relations  of  whites  and  blacks  in  the 
South,  and  we  must  be  answered  not  by  apology  or  fault- 
finding, but  by  a  plain,  unvarnished  tale. 

In  the  civilized  life  of  to-day  the  contact  of  men  and  their 
relations  to  each  other  fall  in  a  few  main  lines  of  action  and 
communication :  there  is  first  the  physical  proximity  of 
homes  and  dwelling  places,  the  way  in  which  neighborhoods 
group  themselves,  and  the  contiguity  of  neighborhoods. 
Secondly,  and  in  our  age  chiefest,  there  are  the  economic 
relations — the  methods  by  which  individuals  co-operate  for 
earning  a  living,  for  the  mutual  satisfaction  of  wants,  for 
the  production  of  wealth.     Next  there  are  the  political 


Relation  of  the  Negroes  to  the  Whites     123 

relations,  the  co-operation  in  social  control,  in  group  gov- 
ernment, in  laying  and  paying  the  burden  of  taxation.  In 
the  fourth  place  there  are  the  less  tangible  but  highly 
important  forms  of  intellectual  contact  and  commerce,  the 
interchange  of  ideas  through  conversation  and  conference, 
through  periodicals  and  libraries,  and  above  all  the  gradual 
formation  for  each  community  of  that  curious  tertium  quid 
which  we  call  public  opinion.  Closely  allied  with  this  come 
the  various  forms  of  social  contact  in  every-day  life,  in 
travel,  in  theatres,  in  house  gatherings,  in  marrying  and 
giving  in  marriage.  Finally,  there  are  the  varying  forms  of 
religious  enterprise,  of  moral  teaching  and  benevolent  en- 
deavor. 

These  are  the  principal  ways  in  which  men  living  in  the 
same  communities  are  brought  into  contact  with  each  other. 
It  is  my  task  this  afternoon,  therefore,  to  point  out  from  my 
point  of  view  how  the  black  race  in  the  South  meets  and 
mingles  with  the  whites,  in  these  matters  of  every-day  life. 

First  as  to  physical  dwelling,  it  is  usually  possible,  as  most 
of  you  know,  to  draw  in  nearly  every  Southern  community 
a  physical  color  line  on  the  map,  to  the  one  side  of  which 
whites  dwell  and  the  other  Negroes.  The  winding  and  intri- 
cacy of  the  geographical  color  line  varies  of  course  in  differ- 
ent communities.  I  know  some  towns  where  a  straight  line 
drawn  through  the  middle  of  the  main  street  separates  nine- 
tenths  of  the  whites  from  nine-tenths  of  the  blacks.  In  other 
towns  the  older  settlement  of  whites  has  been  encircled  by  a 
broad  band  of  blacks ;  in  still  other  cases  little  settlements 
or  nuclei  of  blacks  have  sprung  up  amid  surrounding  whites. 
Usually  in  cities  each  street  has  its  distinctive  color,  and 
only  now  and  then  do  the  colors  meet  in  close  proximity. 
Even  in  the  country  something  of  this  segregation  is  mani- 
fest in  the  smaller  areas,  and  of  course  in  the  larger  phe- 
nomena of  the  black  belt. 

All  this  segregation  by  color  is  largely  independent  of  that 
natural  clustering  by  social  grades  common  to  all  commu- 


124  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

nities.  A  Negro  slum  may  be  in  dangerous  proximuy  to  a 
white  residence  quarter,  while  it  is  quite  common  to  find  a 
white  slum  planted  in  the  heart  of  a  respectable  Negro  dis- 
trict. One  thing,  however,  seldom  occurs  :  the  best  of  the 
whites  and  the  best  of  the  negroes  almost  never  live  in  any- 
thing like  close  proximity.  It  thus  happens  that  in  nearly 
every  Southern  town  and  city,  both  whites  and  blacks  see 
commonly  the  worst  of  each  other.  This  is  a  vast  change 
from  the  situation  in  the  past  when  through  the  close  contact 
of  master  and  house-servant  in  the  patriarchal  big  house, 
one  found  the  best  of  both  races  in  close  contact  and  sympa- 
thy, while  at  the  same  time  the  squalor  and  dull  round 
of  toil  among  the  field  hands  was  removed  from  the  sight 
and  hearing  of  the  family.  One  can  easily  see  how  a  person 
who  saw  slavery  thus  from  his  father's  parlors  and  sees  free- 
dom on  the  streets  of  a  great  city  fails  to  grasp  or  compre- 
hend the  whole  of  the  new  picture.  On  the  other  hand  the 
settled  belief  of  the  mass  of  the  Negroes  that  the  Southern 
white  people  do  not  have  the  black  man's  best  interests  at 
heart  has  been  intensified  in  later  years  by  this  continual 
daily  contact  of  the  better  class  of  blacks  with  the  worst  rep- 
resentatives of  the  white  race. 

Coming  now  to  the  economic  relations  of  the  races  we  are 
on  ground  made  familiar  by  study,  much  discussion  and  no 
little  philanthropic  effort.  And  yet  with  all  this  there  are 
many  essential  elements  in  the  co-operation  of  Negroes  and 
whites  for  work  and  wealth,  that  are  too  readily  overlooked 
or  not  thoroughly  understood.  The  average  American  can 
easily  conceive  of  a  rich  land  awaiting  development  and 
filled  with  black  laborers.  To  him  the  Southern  problem  is 
simply  that  of  making  efficient  workingmen  out  of  this  ma- 
terial by  giving  them  the  requisite  technical  skill  and  the 
help  of  invested  capital.  The  problem,  however,  is  by  no 
means  as  simple  as  this,  from  the  obvious  fact  that  these 
workingmen  have  been  trained  for  centuries  as  slaves.  They 
exhibit,  therefore,  all  the  advantages  and  defects  of  such 


Relation  of  the  Negroes  to  the  Whites     125 

training  ;  they  are  willing  and  good-natured,  but  not  self- 
reliant,  provident  or  careful.  If  now  the  economic  develop- 
ment of  the  South  is  to  be  pushed  to  the  verge  of  exploitation, 
as  seems  probable,  then  you  have  a  mass  of  workingmen 
thrown  into  relentless  competition  with  the  workingmen  of 
the  world  but  handicapped  by  a  training  the  very  opposite 
to  that  of  the  modern  self-reliant  democratic  laborer.  What 
the  black  laborer  needs  is  careful  personal  guidance,  group 
leadership  of  men  with  hearts  in  their  bosoms,  to  train  them 
to  foresight,  carefulness  and  honesty.  Nor  does  it  require  any 
fine-spun  theories  of  racial  differences  to  prove  the  necessity 
of  such  group  training  after  the  brains  of  the  race  have  been 
knocked  out  by  two  hundred  and  fifty  years  of  assiduous  edu-  > 
cation  in  submission,  carelessness  and  stealing.  After  eman- 
cipation it  was  the  plain  duty  of  some  one  to  assume  this  group 
leadership  and  training  of  the  Negro  laborer.  I  will  not  stop 
here  to  inquire  whose  duty  it  was — whether  that  of  the  white 
ex-master  who  had  profited  by  unpaid  toil,  or  the  Northern 
philanthropist  whose  persistence  brought  the  crisis,  or  of  the 
National  Government  whose  edict  freed  the  bondsmen — I  will 
not  stop  to  ask  whose  duty  it  was,  but  I  insist  it  was  the  duty 
of  some  one  to  see  that  these  workingmen  were  not  left  alone 
and  unguided  without  capital,  landless,  without  skill,  with- 
out economic  organization,  without  even  the  bald  protection 
of  law,  order  and  decency  ;  left  in  a  great  land  not  to  settle 
down  to  slow  and  careful  internal  development,  but  destined 
to  be  thrown  almost  immediately  into  relentless,  sharp  com- 
petition with  the  best  of  modern  workingmen  under  an  eco- 
nomic system  where  every  participant  is  fighting  for  himself, 
and  too  often  utterly  regardless  of  the  rights  or  welfare  of  his 
neighbor. 

For  we  must  never  forget  that  the  economic  system  of  the 
South  to-day  which  has  succeeded  the  old  regime  is  not  the 
same  system  as  that  of  the  old  industrial  North,  of  England 
or  of  France  with  their  trades  unions,  their  restrictive  laws, 
their  written  and  unwritten  commercial  customs  and  their 


126  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

long  experience.  It  is  rather  a  copy  of  that  England  of  the 
early  nineteenth  century,  before  the  factory  acts,  the  England 
that  wrung  pity  from  thinkers  and  fired  the  wrath  of  Carlyle. 
The  rod  of  empire  that  passed  from  the  hands  of  Southern 
gentlemen  in  1865,  partly  by  force,  partly  by  their  own 
petulance,  has  never  returned  to  them.  Rather  it  has 
passed  to  those  men  who  have  come  to  take  charge  of  the 
industrial  exploitation  of  the  New  South — the  sons  of  poor 
whites  fired  with  a  new  thirst  for  wealth  and  power,  thrifty 
and  avaricious  Yankees,  shrewd  and  unscrupulous  Jews. 
Into  the  hands  of  these  men  the  Southern  laborers,  white 
and  black,  have  fallen,  and  this  to  their  sorrow.  For  the 
laborers  as  such  there  is  in  these  new  captains  of  industry 
neither  love  nor  hate,  neither  sympathy  nor  romance — it  is 
a  cold  question  of  dollars  and  dividends.  Under  such  a 
system  all  labor  is  bound  to  suffer.  Even  the  white  laborers 
are  not  yet  intelligent,  thrifty  and  well  trained  enough  to 
maintain  themselves  against  the  powerful  inroads  of  organ- 
ized capital.  The  result  among  them  even,  is  long  hours  of 
toil,  low  wages,  child  labor,  and  lack  of  protection  against 
usury  and  cheating.  But  among  the  black  laborers  all  this 
is  aggravated,  first,  by  a  race  prejudice  which  varies  from  a 
doubt  and  distrust  among  the  best  element  of  whites  to  a 
frenzied  hatred  among  the  worst  ;  and,  secondly,  it  is  aggra- 
vated, as  I  have  said  before,  by  the  wretched  economic 
heritage  of  the  freedmen  from  slavery.  With  this  training 
it  is  difficult  for  the  freedman  to  learn  to  grasp  the  oppor- 
tunities already  opened  to  him,  and  the  new  opportunities 
are  seldom  given  him  but  go  by  favor  to  the  whites. 

Left  by  the  best  elements  of  the  South  with  little  protection 
or  oversight,  he  has  been  made  in  law  and  custom  the  victim 
of  the  worst  and  most  unscrupulous  men  in  each  community. 
The  crop-lien  system  which  is  depopulating  the  fields 
of  the  South  is  not  simply  the  result  of  shiftlessness  on 
the  part  of  Negroes  but  is  also  the  result  of  cunningly 
devised  laws  as  to  mortgages,  liens  and  misdemeanors  which 


Relation  of  the  Negroes  to  the  Whites     127 

can  be  made  by  conscienceless  men  to  entrap  and  snare 
the  unwary  until  escape  is  impossible,  further  toil  a  farce, 
and  protest  a  crime.  I  have  seen  in  the  black  belt  of 
Georgia  an  ignorant,  honest  Negro  buy  and  pay  for  a  farm  in 
installments  three  separate  times,  and  then  in  the  face  of  law 
and  decency  the  enterprising  Russian  Jew  who  sold  it  to 
him  pocketed  money  and  deed  and  left  the  black  man  land- 
less, to  labor  on  his  own  land  at  thirty  cents  a  day.  I  have 
seen  a  black  farmer  fall  in  debt  to  a  white  storekeeper  and 
that  storekeeper  go  to  his  farm  and  strip  it  of  every  single 
marketable  article — mules,  plows,  stored  crops,  tools,  furni- 
ture, bedding,  clocks,  looking-glass,  and  all  this  without 
a  warrant,  without  process  of  law,  without  a  sheriff  or 
officer,  in  the  face  of  the  law  for  homestead  exemptions, 
and  without  rendering  to  a  single  responsible  person  any 
account  or  reckoning.  And  such  proceedings  can  happen 
and  will  happen  in  any  community  where  a  class  of  igno- 
rant toilers  are  placed  by  custom  and  race  prejudice  beyond 
the  pale  of  sympathy  and  race  brotherhood.  So  long  as  the 
best  elements  of  a  community  do  not  feel  in  duty  bound  to 
protect  and  train  and  care  for  the  weaker  members  of  their 
group  they  leave  them  to  be  preyed  upon  by  these  swindlers 
and  rascals.  y. 

This  unfortunate  economic  situation  does  not  mean  the 
hindrance  of  all  advance  in  the  black  south,  or  the  absence 
of  a  class  of  black  landlords  and  mechanics  who,  in  spite 
of  disadvantages,  are  accumulating  property  and  making 
good  citizens.  But  it  does  mean  that  this  class  is  not 
nearly  so  large  as  a  fairer  economic  system  might  easily 
make  it,  that  those  who  survive  in  the  competition  are 
handicapped  so  as  to  accomplish  much  less  than  they 
deserve  to,  and  that  above  all,  the  personnel  of  the  success- 
ful class  is  left  to  chance  and  accident,  and  not  to  any 
intelligent  culling  or  reasonable  methods  of  selection.  As  a 
remedy  for  this,  there  is  but  one  possible  procedure.  We 
must  accept  some  of  the  race  prejudice  in  the  South  as  a 


128  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

fact — deplorable  in  its  intensity,  unfortunate  in  results,  and 
dangerous  for  the  future,  but  nevertheless  a  hard  fact  which 
only  time  can  efface.  We  cannot  hope  then  in  this  genera- 
tion, or  for  several  generations,  that  the  mass  of  the  whites 
can  be  brought  to  assume  that  close  sympathetic  and  self- 
sacrificing  leadership  of  the  blacks  which  their  present 
situation  so  eloquently  demands.  Such  leadership,  such 
social  teaching  and  example,  must  come  from  the  blacks 
themselves.  For  sometime  men  doubted  as  to  whether 
the  Negro  could  develop  such  leaders,  but  to-day  no  one 
seriously  disputes  the  capability  of  individual  Negroes 
to  assimilate  the  culture  and  common  sense  of  modern 
civilization,  and  to  pass  it  on  to  some  extent,  at  least,  to 
their  fellows.  If  this  be  true,  then  here  is  the  path  out  of 
the  economic  situation,  and  here  is  the  imperative  demand 
for  trained  Negro  leaders  of  character  and  intelligence,  men 
of  skill,  men  of  light  and  leading,  college-bred  men,  black 
captains  of  industry  and  missionaries  of  culture.  Men  who 
thoroughly  comprehend  and  know  modern  civilization  and 
can  take  hold  of  Negro  communities  and  raise  and  train 
them  by  force  of  precept  and  example,  deep  sympathy  and 
the  inspiration  of  common  blood  and  ideals.  But  if  such 
men  are  to  be  effective  they  must  have  some  power — they 
must  be  backed  by  the  best  public  opinion  of  these  com- 
munities, and  able  to  wield  for  their  objects  and  aims  such 
weapons  as  the  experience  of  the  world  has  taught  are 
indispensable  to  human  progress, 

Of  such  weapons  the  greatest,  perhaps,  in  the  modern 
world  is  the  power  of  the  ballot,  and  this  brings  me  to  a 
consideration  of  the  third  form  of  contact  between  whites 
and  blacks  in  the  South — political  activity. 

In  the  attitude  of  the  American  mind  toward  Negro  suff- 
rage, can  be  traced  with  singular  accuracy  the  prevalent 
conceptions  of  government.  In  the  sixties  we  were  near 
enough  the  echoes  of  the  French  Revolution  to  believe 
pretty  thoroughly  in  universal  suffrage.      We  argued,  as  we 


Relation  of  the  Negroes  to  the  Whites     129 

thought  then  rather  logically,  that  no  social  class  was  so 
good,  so  true  and  so  disinterested  as  to  be  trusted  wholly 
with  the  political  destiny  of  their  neighbors  ;  that  in  every 
state  the  best  arbiters  of  their  own  welfare  are  the  persons 
directly  affected,  consequently  it  is  only  by  arming  every 
hand  with  a  ballot — with  the  right  to  have  a  voice  in  the 
policy  of  the  state — that  the  greatest  good  to  the  greatest 
number  could  be  attained.  To  be  sure  there  were  objections 
to  these  arguments,  but  we  thought  we  had  answered  them 
tersely  and  convincingly  ;  if  some  one  complained  of  the 
ignorance  of  voters,  we  answered  :  "  Educate  them."  If 
another  complained  of  their  venality  we  replied  :  ' '  Dis- 
franchise them  or  put  them  in  jail."  And  finally  to  the 
men  who  feared  demagogues  and  the  natural  perversity  of 
some  human  beings,  we  insisted  that  time  and  bitter  experi- 
ence would  teach  the  most  hardheaded.  It  was  at  this  time 
that  the  question  of  Negro  suffrage  in  the  South  was  raised. 
Here  was  a  defenseless  people  suddenly  made  free.  How 
were  they  to  be  protected  from  those  who  did  not  believe  in 
their  freedom  and  were  determined  to  thwart  it  ?  Not  by 
force,  said  the  North ;  not  by  government  guardianship,  said 
the  South  ;  then  by  the  ballot,  the  sole  and  legitimate 
defense  of  a  free  people,  said  the  Common  Sense  of  the 
nation.  No  one  thought  at  the  time  that  the  ex-slaves 
could  use  the  ballot  intelligently  or  very  effectively,  but 
they  did  think  that  the  possession  of  so  great  power,  by  a 
great  class  in  the  nation  would  compel  their  fellows  to  edu- 
cate this  class  to  its  intelligent  use. 

Meantime  new  thoughts  came  to  the  nation :  the  inevitable 
period  of  moral  retrogression  and  political  trickery  that  ever 
follows  in  the  wake  of  war  overtook  us.  So  flagrant  became 
the  political  scandals  that  reputable  men  began  to  leave 
politics  alone,  and  politics  consequently  became  disreputable. 
Men  began  to  pride  themselves  on  having  nothing  to  do 
with  their  own  government  and  to  agree  tacitly  with  those 
who  regarded  public  office  as  a  private  perquisite.     In  this 


130  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

state  of  mind  it  became  easy  to  wink  at  the  suppression  of 
the  Negro  vote  in  the  South,  and  to  advise  self-respecting 
Negroes  to  leave  politics  entirely  alone.  The  decent  and 
reputable  citizens  of  the  North  who  neglected  their  own  civic 
duties  grew  hilarious  over  the  exaggerated  importance  with 
which  the  Negro  regarded  the  franchise.  Thus  it  easily 
happened  that  more  and  more  the  better  class  of  Negroes 
followed  the  advice  from  abroad  and  the  pressure  from  home 
and  took  no  further  interest  in  politics,  leaving  to  the  careless 
and  the  venal  of  their  race  the  exercise  of  their  rights  as 
voters.  This  black  vote  which  still  remained  was  not 
trained  and  educated  but  further  debauched  by  open  and 
unblushing  bribery,  or  force  and  fraud,  until  the  Negro  voter 
was  thoroughly  inoculated  with  the  idea  that  politics  was 
a  method  of  private  gain  by  disreputable  means. 

And  finally,  now,  to-day,  when  we  are  awakening  to  the 
fact  that  the  perpetuity  of  republican  institutions  on  this 
continent  depends  on  the  purification  of  the  ballot,  the  civic 
training  of  voters,  and  the  raising  of  voting  to  the  plane  of 
a  solemn  duty  which  a  patriotic  citizen  neglects  to  his  peril 
and  to  the  peril  of  his  children's  children — in  this  day  when 
we  are  striving  for  a  renaissance  of  civic  virtue,  what  are  we 
going  to  say  to  the  black  voter  of  the  South  ?  Are  we 
going  to  tell  him  still  that  politics  is  a  disreputable  and 
useless  form  of  human  activity  ?  Are  we  going  to  induce 
the  best  class  of  Negroes  to  take  less  and  less  interest  in 
government  and  give  up  their  right  to  take  such  an 
interest  without  a  protest  ?  I  am  not  saying  a  word  against 
all  legitimate  efforts  to  purge  the  ballot  of  ignorance,  pauper- 
ism and  crime.  But  few  have  pretended  that  the  present 
movement  for  disfranchisement  in  the  South  is  for  such  a 
purpose  ;  it  has  been  plainly  and  frankly  declared  in  nearly 
every  case  that  the  object  of  the  disfranchising  laws  is  the 
elimination  of  the  black  man  from  politics. 

Now  is  this  a  minor  matter  which  has  no  influence  on  the 
main  question  of  the  industrial  and  intellectual  development 


Relation  of  the  Negroes  to  the  Whites     131 

of  the  Negro  ?  Can  we  establish  a  mass  of  black  laborers, 
artisans  and  landholders  in  the  South  who  by  law  and 
public  opinion  have  absolutely  no  voice  in  shaping  the  laws 
under  which  they  live  and  work.  Can  the  modern  organiza- 
tion of  industry,  assuming  as  it  does  free  democratic  govern- 
ment and  the  power  and  ability  of  the  laboring  classes  to 
compel  respect  for  their  welfare — can  this  system  be  carried 
out  in  the  South  when  half  its  laboring  force  is  voiceless  in 
the  public  councils  and  powerless  in  its  own  defense  ?  To-day 
the  black  man  of  the  South  has  almost  nothing  to  say  as  to 
how  much  he  shall  be  taxed,  or  how  those  taxes  shall  be  ex- 
pended ;  as  to  who  shall  execute  the  laws  and  how  they  shall 
do  it ;  as  to  who  shall  make  the  laws  and  how  they  shall  be 
made.  It  is  pitiable  that  frantic  efforts  must  be  made  at 
critical  times  to  get  lawmakers  in  some  states  even  to  listen 
to  the  respectful  presentation  of  the  black  side  of  a  current 
controversy.  Daily  the  Negro  is  coming  more  and  more  to 
look  upon  law  and  justice  not  as  protecting  safeguards  but 
as  sources  of  humiliation  and  oppression.  The  laws  are 
made  by  men  who  as  yet  have  little  interest  in  him  ;  they 
are  executed  by  men  who  have  absolutely  no  motive  for 
treating  the  black  people  with  courtesy  or  consideration,  and 
finally  the  accused  lawbreaker  is  tried  not  by  his  peers 
but  too  often  by  men  who  would  rather  punish  ten  innocent 
Negroes  than  let  one  guilty  one  escape. 

I  should  be  the  last  one  to  deny  the  patent  weaknesses 
and  shortcomings  of  the  Negro  people  ;  I  should  be  the  last 
to  withhold  sympathy  from  the  white  South  in  its  efforts  to 
solve  its  intricate  social  problems.  I  freely  acknowledge 
that  it  is  possible  and  sometimes  best  that  a  partially  unde- 
veloped people  should  be  ruled  by  the  best  of  their  stronger 
and  better  neighbors  for  their  own  good,  until  such  time  as 
they  can  start  and  fight  the  world's  battles  alone.  I  have 
already  pointed  out  how  sorely  in  need  of  such  economic  and 
spiritual  guidance  the  emancipated  Negro  was,  and  I  am 
quite   willing   to  admit  that  if   the  representatives   of  the 


132  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

best  white  southern  public  opinion  were  the  ruling  and 
guiding  powers  in  the  South  to-day  that  the  conditions 
indicated  would  be  fairly  well  fulfilled.  But  the  point  I  have 
insisted  upon  and  now  emphasize  again  is  that  the  best 
opinion  of  the  South  to-day  is  not  the  ruling  opinion.  That 
to  leave  the  Negro  helpless  and  without  a  ballot  to-day  is  to 
leave  him  not  to  the  guidance  of  the  best  but  rather  to  the 
exploitation  and  debauchment  of  the  worst  ;  that  this  is 
no  truer  of  the  South  than  of  the  North — of  the  North  than 
of  Europe — in  any  land,  in  any  country  under  modern  free 
competition,  to  lay  any  class  of  weak  and  despised  people,  be 
they  white,  black  or  blue,  at  the  political  mercy  of  their 
stronger,  richer  and  more  resourceful  fellows  is  a  temptation 
which  human  nature  seldom  has  and  seldom  will  withstand. 
Moreover  the  political  status  of  the  Negro  in  the  South  is 
closely  connected  with  the  question  of  Negro  crime.  There 
can  be  no  doubt  that  crime  among  Negroes  has  greatly  in- 
creased in  the  last  twenty  years  and  that  there  has  appeared  in 
the  slums  of  great  cities  a  distinct  criminal  class  among  the 
blacks.  In  explaining  this  unfortunate  developement  we 
must  note  two  things,  ( 1 )  that  the  inevitable  result  of  eman- 
cipation was  to  increase  crime  and  criminals,  and  (2)  that  the 
police  system  of  the  South  was  primarily  designed  to  control 
slaves.  As  to  the  first  point  we  must  not  forget  that  under 
a  strict  slave  regime  there  can  scarcely  be  such  a  thing  as 
crime.  But  when  these  variously  constituted  human  particles 
are  suddenly  thrown  broadcast  on  the  sea  of  life,  some  swim, 
some  sink,  and  some  hang  suspended,  to  be  forced  up  or  down 
by  the  chance  currents  of  a  busy  hurrying  world.  So  great  an 
economic  and  social  revolution  as  swept  the  South  in  '63 
meant  a  weeding  out  among  the  Negroes  of  the  incompetents 
and  vicious — the  beginning  of  a  differentiation  of  social 
grades.  Now  a  rising  group  of  people  are  not  lifted  bodily 
from  the  ground  like  an  inert  solid  mass,  but  rather  stretch 
upward  like  a  living  plant  with  its  roots  still  clinging  in  the 
mold.    The  appearance,  therefore,  of  the  Negro  criminal  was 


Relation  of  the  Negroes  to  the  Whites    133 

a  phenomenon  to  be  awaited,  and  while  it  causes  anxiety  it 
should  not  occasion  surprise. 

Here  again  the  hope  for  the  future  depended  peculiarly 
on  careful  and  delicate  dealing  with  these  criminals.  Their 
offenses  at  first  were  those  of  laziness,  carelessness  and 
impulse  rather  than  of  malignity  or  ungoverned  viciousness. 
Such  misdemeanors  needed  discriminating  treatment,  firm 
but  reformatory,  with  no  hint  of  injustice  and  full  proof  of 
guilt.  For  such  dealing  with  criminals,  white  or  black,  the 
South  had  no  machinery,  no  adequate  jails  or  reformatories 
and  a  police  system  arranged  to  deal  with  blacks  alone,  and 
which  tacitly  assumed  that  every  white  man  was  ipso  facto  a 
member  of  that  police.  Thus  grew  up  a  double  system  of 
justice  which  erred  on  the  white  side  by  undue  leniency  and 
the  practical  immunity  of  red-handed  criminals,  and  erred  on 
the  black  side  by  undue  severity,  injustice  and  lack  of  dis- 
crimination. For,  as  I  have  said,  the  police  system  of  the 
South  was  originally  designed  to  keep  track  of  all  Negroes, 
not  simply  of  criminals,  and  when  the  Negroes  were  freed 
and  the  whole  South  was  convinced  of  the  impossibility  of 
free  Negro  labor,  the  first  and  almost  universal  device  was  to 
use  the  courts  as  a  means  of  re-enslaving  the  blacks.  It  was 
not  then  a  question  of  crime  but  rather  of  color  that  settled  a 
man's  conviction  on  almost  any  charge.  Thus  Negroes 
came  to  look  upon  courts  as  instruments  of  injustice  and 
oppression,  and  upon  those  convicted  in  them  as  martyrs 
and  victims. 

When  now  the  real  Negro  criminal  appeared  and,  instead 
of  petty  stealing  and  vagrancy,  we  began  to  have  highway 
robbery,  burglary,  murder  and  rape,  it  had  a  curious  effect 
on  both  sides  the  color  line  ;  the  Negroes  refused  to  believe 
the  evidence  of  white  witnesses  or  the  fairness  of  white  juries, 
so  that  the  greatest  deterrent  to  crime,  the  public  opinion 
of  one's  own  social  caste  was  lost  and  the  criminal  still  looked 
upon  as  crucified  rather  than  hanged.  On  the  other  hand 
the  whites,  used  to  being  careless  as  to  the  guilt  or  inno- 


134  Annans  of  the  American  Academy 

cence  of  accused  Negroes,  were  swept  in  moments  of  passion 
beyond  law,  reason  and  decency.  Such  a  situation  is  bound 
to  increase  crime  and  has  increased  it.  To  natural  vicious- 
ness  and  vagrancy  is  being  daily  added  motives  of  revolt 
and  revenge  which  stir  up  all  the  latent  savagery  of  both 
races  and  make  peaceful  attention  to  economic  development 
often  impossible. 

But  the  chief  problem  in  any  community  cursed  with 
crime  is  not  the  punishment  of  the  criminals  but  the  pre- 
venting of  the  young  from  being  trained  to  crime.  And 
here  again  the  peculiar  conditions  of  the  South  have  pre- 
vented proper  precautions.  I  have  seen  twelve- year-old 
boys  working  in  chains  on  the  public  streets  of  Atlanta,  di- 
rectly in  front  of  the  schools,  in  company  with  old  and  hard- 
ened criminals  ;  and  this  indiscriminate  mingling  of  men, 
women  and  children  makes  the  chain-gangs  perfect  schools 
of  crime  and  debauchery,  The  struggle  for  reformatories 
which  has  gone  on  in  Virginia,  Georgia  and  other  states  is 
the  one  encouraging  sign  of  the  awakening  of  some  commu- 
nities to  the  suicidal  results  of  this  policy. 

It  is  the  public  schools,  however,  which  can  be  made  out- 
side the  homes  the  greatest  means  of  training  decent  self- 
respecting  citizens.  We  have  been  so  hotly  engaged  recently 
in  discussing  trade  schools  and  the  higher  education  that  the 
pitiable  plight  of  the  public  school  system  in  the  South  has 
almost  dropped  from  view.  Of  every  five  dollars  spent  for 
public  education  in  the  State  of  Georgia  the  white  schools 
get  four  dollars  and  the  Negro  one  dollar,  and  even  then  the 
white  public  school  system,  save  in  the  cities,  is  bad  and  cries 
for  reform.  If  this  be  true  of  the  whites,  what  of  the  blacks  ? 
I  am  becoming  more  and  more  convinced  as  I  look  upon  the 
system  of  common  school  training  in  the  South  that  the 
national  government  must  soon  step  in  and  aid  popiilar  edu- 
cation in  some  way.  To-day  it  has  been  only  by  the  most 
strenuous  efforts  on  the  part  of  the  thinking  men  of  the  South 
that  the  Negro's  share  of  the  school  fund  has  not  been  cut 


Relation  of  the  Negroes  to  the  Whites     135 

down  to  a  pittance  in  some  half  dozen  states,  and  that  move- 
ment not  only  is  not  dead  but  in  many  communities  is  gain- 
ing strength.  What  in  the  name  of  reason  does  this  nation 
expect  of  a  people  poorly  trained  and  hard  pressed  in  severe 
economic  competition,  without  political  rights  and  with 
ludicrously  inadequate  common  school  facilities  ?  What  can 
it  expect  but  crime  and  listlessness,  offset  here  and  there 
by  the  dogged  struggles  of  the  fortunate  and  more  deter- 
mined who  are  themselves  buoyed  by  the  hope  that  in  due 
time  the  country  will  come  to  its  senses  ? 

I  have  thus  far  sought  to  make  clear  the  physical  eco- 
nomic and  political  relations  of  the  Negroes  and  whites  in 
the  South  as  I  have  conceived  them,  including  for  the  rea- 
sons set  forth,  crime  and  education.  But  after  all  that  has 
been  said  on  these  more  tangible  matters  of  human  contact 
there  still  remains  a  part  essential  to  a  proper  description  of 
the  South  which  it  is  difficult  to  describe  or  fix  in  terms  easily 
understood  by" strangers.  It  is,  in  fine,  the  atmosphere  of 
the  land,  the  thought  and  feeling,  the  thousand  and  one  little 
actions  which  go  to  make  up  life.  In  any  community  or 
nation  it  is  these  little  things  which  are  most  elusive  to  the 
grasp  and  yet  most  essential  to  any  clear  conception  of  the 
group  life,  taken  as  a  whole.  What  is  thus  true  of  all  com- 
munities is  peculiarly  true  of  the  South  where,  outside  of 
written  history  and  outside  of  printed  law,  there  has  been 
going  on  for  a  generation,  as  deep  a  storm  and  stress  of  hu- 
man souls,  as  intense  a  ferment  of  feeling,  as  intricate  a 
writhing  of  spirit  as  ever  a  people  experienced.  Within  and 
without  the  sombre  veil  of  color,  vast  social  forces  have  been 
at  work,  efforts  for  human  betterment,  movements  toward 
disintegration  and  despair,  tragedies  and  comedies  in  social 
and  economic  life,  and  a  swaying  and  lifting  and  sinking  of 
human  hearts  which  have  made  this  land  a  land  of  mingled 
sorrow  and  joy,  of  change  and  excitement. 

The   centre   of  this  spiritual  turmoil  has  ever  been  the 
millions  of  black  freedmen  and  their  sons,  whose  destiny  is 


136  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

so  fatefully  bound  up  with  that  of  the  nation.  And  yet  the 
casual  observer  visiting  the  South  sees  at  first  little  of  this. 
He  notes  the  growing  frequency  of  dark  faces  as  he  rides  on, 
but  otherwise  the  days  slip  lazily  on,  the  sun  shines  and  this 
little  world  seems  as  happy  and  contented  as  other  worlds  he 
has  visited.  Indeed,  on  the  question  of  questions,  the  Negro 
problem,  he  hears  so  little  that  there  almost  seems  to  be  a 
conspiracy  of  silence  ;  the  morning  papers  seldom  mention 
it,  and  then  usually  in  a  far-fetched  academic  way,  and 
indeed  almost  every  one  seems  to  forget  and  ignore  the 
darker  half  of  the  land,  until  the  astonished  visitor  is 
inclined  to  ask  if  after  all  there  is  any  problem  here.  But 
if  he  lingers  long  enough  there  comes  the  awakening  :  per- 
haps in  a  sudden  whirl  of  passion  which  leaves  him  gasping 
at  its  bitter  intensity  ;  more  likely  in  a  gradually  dawning 
sense  of  things  he  had  not  at  first  noticed.  Slowly  but 
surely  his  eyes  begin  to  catch  the  shadows  of  the  color  line; 
here  he  meets  crowds  of  Negroes  and  whites  ;  then  he  is 
suddenly  aware  that  he  cannot  discover  a  single  dark  face  ; 
or  again  at  the  close  of  a  day's  wandering  he  may  find 
himself  in  some  strange  assembly,  where  all  faces  are  tinged 
brown  or  black,  and  where  he  has  the  vague  uncomfortable 
feeling  of  the  stranger.  He  realizes  at  last  that  silently, 
resistlessly,  the  world  about  flows  by  him  in  two  great 
streams.  They  ripple  on  in  the  same  sunshine,  they  ap- 
proach here  and  mingle  their  waters  in  seeming  carelessness, 
the}'  divide  then  and  flow  wide  apart.  It  is  done  quietly,  no 
mistakes  are  made,  or  if  one  occurs  the  swift  arm  of  the  law 
and  public  opinion  swings  down  for  a  moment,  as  when  the 
other  day  a  black  man  and  a  white  woman  were  arrested  for 
talking  together  on  Whitehall  street,  in  Atlanta. 

Now  if  one  notices  carefully  one  will  see  that  between 
these  two  worlds,  despite  much  physical  contact  and  daily 
intermingling,  there  is  almost  no  community  of  intellectual 
life  or  points  of  transference  where  the  thoughts  and  feelings 
of  one  race  can  come  with  direct  contact  and  sympathy  with 


Relation  of  the  Negroes  to  the  Whites     137 

the  thoughts  and  feelings  of  the  other.  Before  and  directly 
after  the  war  when  all  the  best  of  the  Negroes  were  domestic 
servants  in  the  best  of  the  white  families,  there  were  bonds 
of  intimacy,  affection,  and  sometimes  blood  relationship 
between  the  races.  They  lived  in  the  same  home,  shared  in 
the  family  life,  attended  the  same  church  often  and  talked 
and  conversed  with  each  other.  But  the  increasing  civiliza- 
tion of  of  the  Negro  since  has  naturally  meant  the  develop- 
ment of  higher  classes  :  there  are  increasing  numbers  of 
ministers,  teachers,  physicians,  merchants,  mechanics  and 
independent  farmers,  who  by  nature  and  training  are  the 
aristocracy  and  leaders  of  the  blacks.  Between  them,  how- 
ever, and  the  best  element  of  the  whites,  there  is  little  or  no 
intellectual  commerce.  They  go  to  separate  churches,  they 
live  in  separate  sections,  they  are  strictly  separated  in  all 
public  gatherings,  they  travel  separately,  and  they  are 
beginning  to  read  different  papers  and  books.  To  most 
libraries,  lectures,  concerts  and  museums  Negroes  are  either 
not  admitted  at  all  or  on  terms  peculiarly  galling  to  the  pride 
of  the  very  classes  who  might  otherwise  be  attracted.  The 
daily  paper  chronicles  the  doings  of  the  black  world  from 
afar  with  no  great  regard  for  accuracy;  and  so  on  throughout 
the  category  of  means  for  intellectual  communication;  schools, 
conferences,  efforts  for  social  betterment  and  the  like,  it  is 
usually  true  that  the  very  representatives  of  the  two  races 
who  for  mutual  benefit  and  the  welfare  of  the  land  ought  to 
be  in  complete  understanding  and  sympathy  are  so  far 
strangers  that  one  side  thinks  all  whites  are  narrow  and 
prejudiced  and  the  other  thinks  educated  Negroes  dangerous 
and  insolent.  Moreover,  in  a  land  where  the  tyranny  of 
public  opinion  and  the  intolerence  of  criticism  is  for  obvious 
historical  reasons  so  strong  as  in  the  South,  such  a  situation 
is  extremely  difficult  to  correct.  The  white  man  as  well  as 
the  Negro  is  bound  and  tied  by  the  color  line  and  many  a 
scheme  of  friendliness  and  philanthropy,  of  broad-minded 
sympathy,   and  generous  fellowship  between  the  two  has 


138  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

dropped  still-born  because  some  busy-body  has  forced  the 
color  question  to  the  front  and  brought  the  tremendous  force 
of  unwritten  law  against  the  innovators. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  for  me  to  add  to  this  very  much  in 
regard  to  the  social  contact  between  the  races.  Nothing  has 
come  to  replace  that  finer  sympathy  and  love  between  some 
masters  and  house  servants,  which  the  radical  and  more 
uncompromising  drawing  of  the  color  line  in  recent  years 
has  caused  almost  completely  to  disappear.  In  a  world 
where  it  means  so  much  to  take  a  man  by  the  hand  and  sit 
beside  him  ;  to  look  frankly  into  his  eyes  and  feel  his  heart 
beating  with  red  blood — in  a  world  where  a  social  cigar  or  a 
cup  of  tea  together  means  more  than  legislative  halls  and 
magazine  articles  and  speeches,  one  can  imagine  the  con- 
sequences of  the  almost  utter  absence  of  such  social  ameni- 
ties between  estranged  races,  whose  separation  extends  even 
to  parks  and  street  cars. 

Here  there  can  be  none  of  that  social  going  down  to  the 
people  ;  the  opening  of  heart  and  hand  of  the  best  to  the 
worst,  in  generous  acknowledgment  of  a  common  humanity 
and  a  common  destiny.  On  the  other  hand,  in  matters  of 
simple  almsgiving,  where  there  be  no  question  of  social 
contact,  and  in  the  succor  of  the  aged  and  sick,  the  South, 
as  if  stirred  by  a  feeling  of  its  unfortunate  limitations,  is 
generous  to  a  fault.  The  black  beggar  is  never  turned 
away  without  a  good  deal  more  than  a  crust,  and  a  call  for 
help  for  the  unfortunate  meets  quick  response.  I  remember, 
one  cold  winter,  in  Atlanta,  when  I  refrained  from  con- 
tributing to  a  public  relief  fund  lest  Negroes  should  be 
discriminated  against  ;  I  afterward  inquired  of  a  friend  : 
"Were  any  black  people  receiving  aid?"  "Why,"  said 
he,  "  they  were  all  black." 

And  yet  this  does  not  touch  the  kernel  of  the  problem. 
Human  advancement  is  not  a  mere  question  of  almsgiving, 
but  rather  of  sympathy  and  co-operation  among  classes  who 
would  scorn  charity.  And  here  is  a  land  where,  in  the 
higher  walks  of  life,  in  all  the  higher  striving  for  the  good 


Relation  of  the  Negroes  to  the  Whites     139 

and  noble  and  true,  the  color  line  conies  to  separate  natural 
friends  and  co-workers,  while  at  the  bottom  of  the  social 
group  in  the  saloon,  the  gambling  hell  and  the  bawdy-house 
that  same  line  wavers  and  disappears. 


I  have  sought  to  paint  an  average  picture  of  real  relations 
between  the  races  in  the  South.  I  have  not  glossed  over 
matters  for  policy's  sake,  for  I  fear  we  have  already  gone  too 
far  in  that  sort  of  thing.  On  the  other  hand  I  have  sincerely 
sought  to  let  no  unfair  exaggerations  creep  in.  I  do  not 
doubt  but  that  in  some  Southern  communities  conditions  are 
far  better  than  those  I  have  indicated.  On  the  other  hand, 
I  am  certain  that  in  other  communities  they  are  far  worse. 

Nor  does  the  paradox  and  danger  of  this  situation  fail  to 
interest  and  perplex  the  best  conscience  of  the  South. 
Deeply  religious  and  intensely  democratic  as  are  the  mass  of 
the  whites,  they  feel  acutely  the  false  position  in  which  the 
Negro  problems  place  them.  Such  an  essentially  honest- 
hearted  and  generous  people  cannot  cite  the  caste-leveling 
precepts  of  Christianity,  or  believe  in  equality  of  opportunity 
for  all  men,  without  coming  to  feel  more  and  more  with  each 
generation  that  the  present  drawing  of  the  color  line  is  a  flat 
contradiction  to  their  beliefs  and  professions.  But  just  as 
often  as  they  come  to  this  point  the  present  social  condition 
of  the  Negro  stands  as  a  menace  and  a  portent  before  even 
the  most  open-minded  :  if  there  were  nothing  to  charge 
against  the  Negro  but  his  blackness  or  other  physical 
peculiarities,  they  argue,  the  problem  would  be  compar- 
atively simple  ;  but  what  can  we  say  to  his  ignorance, 
shiftlessness,  poverty  and  crime  :  can  a  self-respecting  group 
hold  anything  but  the  least  possible  fellowship  with  such 
persons  and  survive  ?  and  shall  we  let  a  mawkish  sentiment 
sweep  away  the  culture  of  our  fathers  or  the  hope  of  our 
children  ?  The  argument  so  put  is  of  great  strength  but  it 
is  not  a  whit  stronger  than  the  argument  of  thinking 
Negroes  ;  granted,  they  reply,  that  the  condition  of  our 
masses  is  bad,  there  is  certainly  on  the  one  hand  adequate 


140  Annans  of  the;  American  Academy. 

historical  cause  for  this,  and  unmistakable  evidence  that  no 
small  number  have,  in  spite  of  tremendous  disadvantages, 
risen  to  the  level  of  American  civilization.  And  when  by 
proscription  and  prejudice,  these  same' Negroes  are  classed 
with,  and  treated  like  the  lowest  of  their  people  simply 
because  they  are  Negroes,  such  a  policy  not  only  discourages 
thrift  and  intelligence  among  black  men,  but  puts  a  direct 
premium  on  the  very  things  you  complain  of — inefficiency 
and  crime.  Draw  lines  of  crime,  of  incompetency,  of 
vice  as  tightly  and  uncompromisingly  as  you  will,  for  these 
things  must  be  proscribed,  but  a  color  line  not  only  does  not 
accomplish  this  purpose,  but  thwarts  it. 

In  the  face  of  two  such  arguments,  the  future  of  the 
South  depends  on  the  ability  of  the  representatives  of  these 
opposing  views  to  see  and  appreciate,  and  sympathize  with 
each  other's  position  ;  for  the  Negro  to  realize  more  deeply 
than  he  does  at  present  the  need  of  uplifting  the  masses  of 
his  people,  for  the  white  people  to  realize  more  vividly  than 
they  have  yet  done  the  deadening  and  disastrous  effect  of  a 
color  prejudice  that  classes  Paul  L,awrence  Dunbar  and  Sam 
Hose  in  the  same  despised  class. 

It  is  not  enough  for  the  Negroes  to  declare  that  color 
prejudice  is  the  sole  cause  of  their  social  condition,  nor  for 
the  white  South  to  reply  that  their  social  condition  is  the 
main  cause  of  prejudice.  They  both  act  as  reciprocal  cause 
and  effect  and  a  change  in  neither  alo?ie  will  bring  the  desired 
effect.  Both  must  change  or  neither  can  improve  to  any  great 
extent.  The  Negro  cannot  stand  the  present  reactionary 
tendencies  and  unreasoning  drawing  of  the  color  line  much 
longer  without  discouragement  and  retrogression.  And  the 
condition  of  the  Negro  is  ever  the  excuse  for  further 
discrimination.  Only  by  a  union  of  intelligence  and  sym- 
pathy across  the  color  line  in  this  critical  period  of  the 
Republic  shall  justice  and  right  triumph,  and 

••  Mind  and  heart  according  well, 
Shall  make  one  music  as  before, 
But  vaster. ' ' 


PART    IV:    THE   RACES 
OF  THE  WEST  INDIES 


(141) 


OUR  RELATION  TO  THE  PEOPLE  OF 
CUBA  AND  PORTO  RICO.  BY  HON. 
ORVILLE  H.  PLATT,  UNITED  STATES 
SENATOR     FROM     CONNECTICUT 


(143) 


OUR  RELATION  TO  THE  PEOPLE  OF  CUBA  AND 
PORTO  RICO. 

By  Hon.  Orviixe  H.  Platt, 

United  States  Senator  from  Connecticut. 

We  have  undertaken  the  solution  of  a  very  difficult 
problem  in  Cuba.  When  we  went  to  war  with  Spain  we 
declared  that  the  people  of  Cuba  ought  to  be  free  and  inde- 
pendent, and  we  therefore  disclaimed  any  purpose  to  acquire 
the  island,  and  promised  that  when  its  pacification  should 
be  accomplished  we  would  leave  it  to  its  people.  To  this 
declaration  and  promise  we  are  solemnly  pledged  as  a 
nation.  Reduced  to  its  simplest  terms  our  pledge  is  this  : 
that  the  United  States  becomes  responsible  for  the  establish- 
ment and  orderly  continuance  of  republican  government  in 
Cuba.  If,  as  some  seem  to  suppose,  the  full  performance  of 
our  obligation  only  requires  us  to  see  that  a  so-called 
republic  is  organized  there,  the  task  is  comparatively  easy, 
but  if  we  are  also  bound  to  provide  for  the  orderly  continu- 
ance of  a  genuine  republic  it  is  by  no  means  easy. 
That  the  latter  duty  is  as  imperative  as  the  former,  can 
scarcely  be  questioned.  Indeed,  it  seems  to  be  questioned 
only  in  a  technical  way.  Certain  self-constituted  and  viru- 
lent critics  try  to  maintain  that  our  promise  to  leave  the 
island  to  its  people  as  soon  as  it  should  be  pacified  meant 
that  when  we  should  have  driven  out  Spain  we  would 
ourselves  retire  and  have  nothing  further  to  do  with  its 
affairs,  either  by  way  of  guiding  the  Cubans  in  the  establish- 
ment of  their  government,  or  assisting  them  to  maintain 
their  independence. 

In  other  words,  it  seems  to  be  supposed  by  these  carping 
people  that  the  United  States  has  no  interests  to  protect  in 
the  Island  of  Cuba  and  that  no  matter  what  its  people  may 
do,  we  are  only  to  look  on.     But  even  these  critics  admit 

(i45) 


146  Annaes  of  the  American  Academy 

that  if  conditions  under  the  new  government  shall  become 
intolerable,  intervention  will  again  be  justifiable  and  imper- 
ative. They  would  have  us  at  once  terminate  our  military 
occupation  leaving  the  future  uncared  for  with  the  expecta- 
tion that,  should  troubles  arise  there,  either  by  reason  of  for- 
eign demands  or  internal  disorders,  by  which  our  interests 
are  imperiled,  we  will  return  in  force  to  set  matters  right 
again.  It  seems  scarcely  possible  that  such  a  policy  should 
find  advocates  in  any  quarter.  Unless  we  provide  now  for 
continued  independence  and  peace  in  the  Island  of  Cuba  there 
is  no  way  in  which  they  can  be  assured  unless,  in  case  the 
necessity  arises,  we  declare  war  and  enter  upon  the  business 
of  subjugating  and  annexing  it.  It  must  be  seen  by  all 
who  have  the  real  welfare  of  our  country  at  heart  that  our 
only  true  policy  is  to  see  that  a  republican  government  is 
now  established  under  conditions  which  recognize  our  right 
to  maintain  its  stability  and  prosperity.  Cuba  has  menaced 
our  peace  quite  too  long,  and  having  once  undertaken  to 
remedy  an  intolerable  condition  there  it  would  be  inexcus- 
able folly  to  ignore  the  possibility  and  indeed  probability  of 
future  trouble,  or  to  fail  to  guard  against  its  recurrence. 

All  rights  acquired  by  the  act  of  intervention  exist  except 
so  far  as  they  are  limited  by  the  resolution  of  Congress,  and 
the  only  limitation  imposed  by  that  legislation  rightly  con- 
strued is  that  we  will  not  claim  Cuba  as  a  part  of  the  United 
States.  We  took  temporary  possession  of  the  island  with  a 
self-imposed  trust  which  requires  us  to  allow  its  people  to 
establish  a  free  and  independent  government,  and  also  to 
assist  in  its  maintenance  as  an  orderly,  stable,  and  beneficent 
one.  The  difficulty  of  the  situation  arises  from  the  fact  that 
it  would  be  improper  for  the  United  States  to  dictate  the 
provisions  of  the  constitution  which  is  to  be  the  basis  of 
the  new  government,  except  to  an  extent  necessary  for  its 
own  self-protection,  and  the  discharge  of  obligations  grow- 
ing out  of  its  intervention.  We  have  a  right  to  insist  that 
there  shall  be  provisions  in   the  constitution  of  Cuba,  or 


People  of  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico  147 

attached  to  it  by  way  of  an  ordinance,  which  will  clearly  de- 
fine the  relations  which  are  to  exist  between  the  two  coun- 
tries, but  all  matters  relating  to  the  system  and  detail  of 
government  should  be  left  to  the  people  of  Cuba  alone.  For 
instance,  although  we  may  feel  that  universal  suffrage  will 
result  in  trouble  and  difficulty,  we  manifestly  have  no  right 
to  prescribe  the  elective  franchise. 

The  framework  of  government  must  be  left  by  us  to  the 
constitutional  convention  without  dictation  or  mandatory 
suggestion.  So  far  as  the  rights  of  the  people  are  concerned 
they  must  be  left  absolutely  free  to  declare  them.  So  far  as 
our  rights  are  concerned,  we  may  insist  on  their  recognition 
without  in  any  way  impairing  or  interfering  with  the  inde- 
pendence of  Cuba.  The  war  with  Spain  was  undertaken  to 
put  an  end  to  intolerable  conditions  not  only  shocking  to 
humanity,  but  menacing  our  welfare,  and  our  work  was  but 
half  done  when  the  authority  of  Spain  was  destroyed.  We 
became  responsible  to  the  people  of  Cuba,  to  ourselves,  and 
the  world  at  large,  that  a  good  government  should  be  estab- 
lished and  maintained  in  place  of  the  bad  one  to  which  we 
put  an  end.  The  practical  question  then  is,  in  what  way 
can  the  United  States  provide  for  a  government  in  Cuba 
which  shall  not  only  secure  the  blessings  of  liberty  there  in 
their  full  exercise,  but  shall  also  secure  to  the  United  States 
the  results  of  good  government  in  a  country  so  closely 
adjoining  us  ? 

The  right  to  intervene  for  the  abolition  of  a  bad  govern- 
ment, and  the  right  to  intervene  for  the  maintenance  of  a 
good  government  in  Cuba,  rest  upon  the  same  foundation. 
It  is  as  much  our  duty  to  exercise  our  power  in  the  mainte- 
nance of  an  independent,  stable  and  peaceful  government 
there  as  it  was  to  exercise  it  in  the  destruction  of  a  mon- 
archical, oppressive  and  inhuman  one.  Duty  and  self-inter- 
est coincide  in  this  respect.  The  extension  of  the  principles 
and  institutions  of  free  government,  wherever  possible  and 
practicable,  is  no  less  our  duty  than  the  protection  of  our 


148  Annai£  of  the;  American  Academy 

own  citizens  in  all  their  rights  and  interests  in  a  foreign 
country.  By  every  consideration,  then,  which  can  bind  a 
nation,  we  are  committed  and  pledged  to  the  policy  of  per- 
mitting the  people  of  Cuba  to  establish,  for  and  by  them- 
selves, a  republican  government  for  the  continuance  and 
maintenance  of  which  we  are  to  be  responsible. 

If  the  element  of  our  responsibility  were  eliminated  from 
the  problem,  it  would  be  quite  safe  to  say  that  the  experi- 
ment of  free  government  has  never  been  attempted  in  the 
world  under  circumstances  less  favorable  to  permanent  suc- 
cess. To  insure  the  success  of  free  government,  certain  con- 
ditions seem  indispensable.  There  must  be  a  homogeneous 
people  possessed  of  a  high  degree  of  virtue  and  intelligence. 
A  sentimental  longing  for  liberty  will  not  of  itself  insure  the 
maintenance  of  a  republic.  Liberty  is  a  word  of  quite  elas- 
tic meaning.  License  is  not  true  liberty.  It  is  orderly  lib- 
erty only  which  constitutes  the  sure  basis  of  free  govern- 
ment. That  government  only  is  really  free  and  indepen- 
dent where  liberty  is  restrained  and  buttressed  by  lawr,  and 
where  the  supposed  rights  of  the  individual  are  limited  by 
the  rights  of  all.  To  establish  such  liberty  there  must  be  an 
intelligent  understanding  of  the  social  system  and  a  compre- 
hension of  the  just  principles  upon  which  true  government 
must  always  rest.  The  consent  of  the  governed  must  be  an 
intelligent  consent.  "Where  the  capacity  to  consent  does  not 
exist,  no  government  can  be  permanently  maintained  upon 
such  consent.  Where  a  majority  of  voters  neither  under- 
stand nor  respect  the  true  principles  of  government,  there 
may  be  a  republic  in  name,  but  in  fact  it  will  only  be  a  dic- 
tatorship, in  which  the  purpose  and  power  of  its  president 
control  rather  than  the  consent  of  the  governed. 

Social,  racial  and  economic  conditions  in  Cuba  do  not  at 
first  sight  promise  well  for  the  permanence  of  republican 
government.  In  passing,  we  must  remember  the  fact  that 
none  of  its  people  have  had  any  experience  in  self-govern- 
ment, and  the  further  fact  that  all  their  notions  of  govern- 


People  of  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico  149 

ment  have  been  framed  and  moulded  by  the  history  and 
administration  of  one  of  the  most  arbitrary  and  corrupt  the 
world  has  ever  known.  The  lines  which  mark  the  divi- 
sion of  classes  are  most  distinctly  drawn,  and  the  interests 
of  the  different  classes  are  most  diverse. 

The  census  of  Cuba  recently  taken  fails  to  give  us  statis- 
tics in  many  important  particulars.  It  informs  us  as  to  the 
proportion  of  the  white  and  colored  population,  and  of  the 
native  and  foreign  born.  It  shows  that  the  number  engaged 
in  gainful  occupations  is  somewhat  larger  comparatively 
than  in  the  United  States,  but  it  fails  to  give  us  any  statis- 
tics as  to  property  and  wealth. 

Cuba  is  essentially  an  agricultural  state.  Its  soil  is  very 
fertile  and  its  climate  is  such  that  a  failure  of  crops  is  seldom 
known.  It  has  hitherto  had  the  disadvantage  that  its  agri- 
culture industry  was  mainly  concentrated  in  the  production 
of  two  crops  only,  sugar  and  tobacco.  While  there  is  oppor- 
tunity for  great  diversification  of  agriculture,  the  profits 
arising  from  sugar  and  tobacco  have  been  such  that  other 
products  have  been  neglected.  The  foreign  trade  of  the 
island,  exports  and  imports  combined,  has  amounted  to 
$100,000,000  annually,  and  when  we  reflect  that  this  foreign 
trade  is  from  an  island  containing  only  a  million  and  half  of 
people,  it  is  easy  to  see  how  profitable  these  two  products 
have  been  under  favorable  conditions.  As  a  result  of  these 
industries,  there  was,  before  the  war  with  Spain,  great  wealth 
in  Cuba.  The  distinction  made  between  Spaniards  and 
Cubans  is  simply  that  of  birthplace,  persons  born  in  Spain 
being  classed  as  Spaniards,  and  all  persons  born  in  Cuba, 
being  classed  as  Cubans. 

The  Spaniards  are  the  wealthy  class.  They  are  commer- 
cial people.  They  carry  on  trade  and  business,  loan  money, 
but  do  not  as  a  class  acquire  landed  property.  They  are 
merchants,  bankers,  traders,  money  lenders  ;  they  have  all 
the  commercial  instincts'  and  characteristics  of  the  Jew, 
derived  perhaps  from  the  Jewish  population  of  Spain  in 


150  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

former  times.  The  proportion  of  Spaniards  to  the  entire 
population  is  small — 130,000  only  in  round  numbers,  at  the 
time  of  taking  the  census,  out  of  a  total  population  of 
1,600,000,  were  Spaniards.  About  sixty  per  cent  of  this 
number,  under  the  treaty  of  Paris,  retained  their  alle- 
giance to  Spain.  The  proportion  of  adult  males  among 
Spaniards  is  very  much  greater  than  that  of  any  other  class 
of  the  population,  86,000  out  of  130,000  being  males  over 
twenty-one  years  of  age.  Most  of  the  ready  money  of  the 
island  is  controlled  by  these  Spaniards. 

y  The  land  of  Cuba  is  owned,  generally  speaking,  by  white 
Cubans.  The  number  of  land-owners  in  proportion  to  the 
population  is  not  given,  but  their  number  is  comparatively 
small.  Considerable  quantities  of  land  are  owned  by  persons 
residing  in  Spain  and  other  countries,  but  the  cultivated 
part  of  the  island  has  been  owned  very  largely  by  these 
Cuban  planters.  In  recent  times,  some  Americans  and 
other  foreigners  have  acquired  estates,  but  the  percentage  of 
land  thus  held  is  small.  It  may  then  be  said  that  the  wealth 
and  property  of  the  island  is  concentrated  in  the  hands  of 
the  Spaniards  and  a  comparatively  few  white  Cubans.  Small 
holdings  by  persons  cultivating  land,  as  in  the  United  States, 
are  practically  unknown  in  Cuba.  The  larger  proportion  of 
the  inhabitants,  both  white  and  colored,  are  not  property- 
holders  and  have  no  direct  interest  in  the  soil  or  in  the  busi- 
ness of  the  island. 

The  classes  controlling  wealth  and  property  took  little 
or  no  part  in  the  revolution.  The  Spaniards,  of  course, 
were  loyal  to  Spain,  and  most  of  the  Cuban  land-owners  tried 
to  preserve  their  neutrality  as  between  the  revolutionists  and 
the  Spanish  government,  often  paying  tribute  to  both  sides 
in  the  hope  of  saving  their  estates  from  destruction.  There 
is  little  sympathy  between  the  wealthy  and  land-owning 
classes  in  Cuba  and  the  great  bulk  of  its  population.  The 
active  revolutionary  element  consisted  of  white  Cubans, 
who,  as  has  been  said,  have  little  or  no  property  interests 


People  of  Cuba  and   Porto  Rico      151 

at  stake  ;  they  were  the  officers  of  the  insurgent  forces ; 
the  mulattoes  constituted  the  rank  and  file,  or  fighting 
element  of  the  revolution.  <^ 

Naturally  the  conservative  and  property-holding  class,  and 
the  radical  and  revolutionary  class,  thoroughly  distrust  each 
other.  Property  owners  think  property  will  not  be  safe  if 
the  revolutionary  element  shall  be  in  control,  and  the  radicals 
think  that  the  property-owning  and  business  element  secretly 
favors  annexation,  in  which  it  is  encouraged  by  the  United 
States.  For  this  reason  principally  the  radical  leaders 
exhibit  symptoms  of  hostility  toward  us.  Those  who  own 
property  in  Cuba  do  look  to  the  United  States  for  protection; 
quite  likely  they  are  annexationists  at  heart.  While  there  is 
little  or  no  annexation  sentiment  in  the  United  States,  it  is 
almost  impossible  to  convince  Cubans  of  that  fact.  The 
radicals  think  that  we  are  not  sincere  when  we  tell  them 
that  annexation  is  the  last  thing  desired  by  the  United 
States,  and  the  conservatives  hope  that  in  the  end  events 
may  necessitate  annexation. 

If  the  present  Cuban  leaders  can  be  brought  to  understand 
and  realize  that  the  United  States  is  as  much  opposed  to 
annexation  as  they  are,  fully  sympathizes  with  them  in  their 
desire  for  independence  and  has  no  intention  of  limiting  or 
impairing  that  independence,  their  objection  to  the  propo- 
sitions submitted  to  them  by  Congress,  defining  our  future 
relations,  will  doubtless  be  modified.  Cuban  property  own- 
ers felt  the  oppression  of  Spain  but  feared  a  government 
which  would  be  established  if  the  revolutionists  succeeded, 
quite  as  much  as  they  did  the  Spanish  government.  Such 
fear  still  continues,  and  as  the)7  are  in  a  minority,  they 
have  hitherto  refrained  from  any  participation  in  the  effort 
to  establish  a  new  government,  confidently  expecting  the 
United  States  to  protect  them  in  the  enjoyment  of  life, 
liberty  and  property. 

Politically,  the  people  may  be  divided  into  five  classes. 
First,   Spaniards,   including  both  those  who  have  retained 


152  Annaes  of  the  American  Academy. 

their  Spanish  allegiance  and  those  who  have  become  Cuban 
citizens  ;  second,  Autonomists,  or  white  Cubans,  who  re- 
mained loyal  during  the  war  and  undertook  the  task  of 
organizing  government  under  the  autonomy  at  last  conceded 
by  Spain  ;  third,  white  Cubans,  who  tried  to  preserve  their 
neutrality  ;  fourth,  white  Cuban  revolutionists  ;  and  fifth, 
the  colored  class,  a  large  proportion  of  which  participated 
in  the  revolution.  Between  these  different  classes  there  is 
little  of  sympathy,  much  of  distrust.  Even  the  Spaniards 
and  the  Autonomists  do  not  affiliate,  and  at  present  there 
seems  little  prospect  that  there  can  be  any  political  union 
among  those  who  may  be  called  the  conservative  people  of 
Cuba.  Their  interests  would  lead  them  to  unite,  but  their 
prejudices  and  suspicions  forbid. 

There  remains,  then,  the  larger  proportion  of  Cuban  citi- 
zens who  may  be  classed  as  radical  revolutionists.  In  the 
United  States  they  would  be  called  agitators.  Delegates 
representing  this  class  of  the  population  appear  to  be  in 
control  of  the  Cuban  constitutional  convention.  They  seem 
to  feel  that  by  reason  of  the  fact  that  they  were  revolutionists 
they  alone  are  entitled  to  take  part  in  the  establishment  and 
management  of  a  new  government. 

They  have  very  imperfect  ideas  of  the  practical  duties  or 
responsibilities  of  a  free  government,  but  are  intensely 
devoted  to  liberty  as  they  understand  it.  Instead  of  being 
grateful  to  the  United  States  for  the  part  it  took  in  the 
liberation  of  Cuba,  the}r  appear  to  cherish  a  spirit  of  hostility 
towards  us  because  they  have  not  already  been  put  in  actual 
possession  of  the  government.  Under  the  military  govern- 
ment of  the  island  they  have  held  and  still  hold  nearly  all  of 
the  civil  offices,  but  recognize  very  little  obligation  to  that 
government.  One  thing  must  be  understood.  Every  Cuban, 
whether  a  revolutionist  or  otherwise,  is  essentially  Spanish 
in  all  his  traits  and  characteristics.  There  are  as  yet  no 
well-defined  political  parties  in  Cuba.  The  conservatives 
have   not   been  able   to  affiliate  sufficiently  to  organize  a 


People  of  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico  153 

conservative  party,  and  party  divisions  among  the  revolu- 
tionists are  not  based  upon  different  policies  or  principles, 
but  rather  upon  individual  leadership.  The  social  and 
economic  conditions,  thus  briefly  outlined,  do  not  on  their 
face  promise  much  for  permanence  of  republican  govern- 
ment, but  as  time  progresses,  necessity  and  mutual  interest 
may  wear  away  prejudices  and  distrust,  and  permit  some- 
thing like  united  effort  by  the  more  conservative  classes. 

In  addition  to  the  difficulties  enumerated,  there  is  the 
inevitable  race  problem.  There  is  not  as  yet  a  race  issue  in 
Cuban  politics.  Whether  there  will  be,  time  only  can 
determine.  Prejudice  on  account  of  color  is  either  less  than 
in  the  United  States  or  of  a  different  quality.  Certainly 
neither  blacks  nor  mixed  bloods  are  regarded  as  inferiors  to 
the  same  extent  as  with  us,  and  in  the  matter  of  social 
distinction  color  plays  but  a  comparatively  unimportant  part. 
White  and  colored  laborers  work  side  by  side  without 
friction  or  contention.  Maceo  was  honored  and  esteemed  as 
perhaps  the  ablest  revolutionary  general,  and  Gualberto 
Gomez  is  regarded  as  one  of  the  ablest  delegates  in  the 
constitutional  convention.  Universal  suffrage  was  adopted 
in  the  proposed  constitution  without  a  suggestion  and  pre- 
sumably without  a  thought  that  a  colored  man  was  not  as  \ 
much  entitled  to  be  a  voter  as  a  white  man. 

The  colored  people,  including  blacks  and  mixed  bloods, 
constitute  about  one-third  of  the  population  of  Cuba.  In 
some  of  the  provinces  like  Santiago  and  Matanzas,  the 
proportion  is  much  larger  ;  in  Santiago  forty-five  per  cent, 
in  Matanzas  forty  per  cent,  while  in  some  of  the  provinces 
it  is  comparatively  small,  in  Puerto  Principe  only  twenty 
per  cent.  It  is  an  illiterate  population.  Only  twenty-eight 
per  cent  of  the  colored  population  of  the  island  can  read. 
True,  the  white  population  is  also  illiterate,  only  forty-nine 
per  cent  of  which  can  read.  These  facts  are  very  suggestive 
when  we  consider  the  possibility  of  maintaining  a  republican 
government.     In   the   ascertainment   of  these  statistics   of 


154  Annals  of  the  American  Academy. 

illiteracy  it  is  assumed  that  all  children  under  ten  years  of 
age  attending  school  can  read,  so  that  the  proportion  of  adult 
males  who  can  read  will  be  somewhat  less  than  indicated. 

The  colored  population  of  Cuba  differs  essentially  from 
that  in  the  United  States,  or  in  the  other  West  India  Islands. 
The  number  of  pure  blacks  is  not  given  in  the  census.  The 
proportion  is  small.  In  appearance  they  differ  essentially 
from  the  negro  of  the  United  States.  They  are  absolutely 
black,  but  their  features  are  more  European  in  cast.  They 
are  not  thick-lipped,  and,  except  for  color,  would  be  taken  as 
splendid  physical  types  of  the  Caucasian  race.  How  this 
physical  difference  is  to  be  accounted  for  we  can  only  conjec- 
ture by  assuming  that  the  slaves  imported  into  Cuba  came 
from  different  sections  of  Africa  than  those  imported  into  the 
United  States.  The  blacks  in  Cuba  appear  to  be  of  a  supe- 
rior type  as  to  capacity  and  efficiency,  but  the  mulatto  com- 
pares less  favorably  with  the  mulatto  in  the  United  States. 
This  is  accounted  for  probably  both  by  blood  and  environment. 
Mulattoes  in  the  United  States  are  a  mixture  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  and  negro  ;  in  Cuba,  of  the  Spaniard  and  negro.  The 
negro  imitates  the  whites  with  whom  he  is  brought  up,  so  in 
the  United  States  he  imitates  the  character  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  ;   in  Cuba,  the  character  of  the  Spaniard. 

In  the  United  States  he  therefore  naturally  aspires  to  par- 
ticipate in  government  ;  in  Cuba  he  seems  to  have  very  little 
such  aspiration.  He  is  industrious,  docile,  quiet,  and 
cares  for  little  beyond  his  immediate  domestic  and  industrial 
surroundings.  The  colored  voter  in  Cuba  is  not  likely 
to  be  a  disturbing  political  element,  unless  under  a  sense  of 
wrong  and  injustice  his  emotions  are  excited,  then,  indeed, 
he  becomes  a  good  fighter,  as  was  proved  in  the  late  revolu- 
tion. He  may  possibly  be  influenced  by  the  agitator  and  dema- 
gogue, but  it  will  require  a  very  deep  realization  of  injustice 
to  make  him  a  dangerous  factor  in  the  politics  of  the  island. 
That  he  will  vote  intelligently  can  scarcely  be  expected.  His 
vote  may  aid  in  putting  dangerous  men  in  power,  but  he  will 


People  of  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico  155 

not  greatl3r  interest  himself  in  the  affairs  of  the  govern- 
ment. 

The  colored  population  of  Cuba  presents  a  most  interest- 
ing sociological  problem.  The  admixture  of  blood  in  his 
veins  exceeds,  perhaps,  that  of  the  mulatto  in  any  other  part  of 
the  world.  The  Spaniard  himself  is  the  result  of  an  admixture 
of  blood  running  through  centuries,  and  the  difference  in 
appearance  of  Spaniards  in  Cuba  is  so  great  that  the  type  is 
hardly  perceptible.  The  race  problem,  as  it  appears  in  the 
white  Cuban  population,  is  quite  as  interesting  as  when  con- 
fined to  the  colored  population.  The  Spaniards  in  Cuba  have 
come  from  the  different  sections  of  Spain,  and  the  same  is  true 
of  the  ancestors  of  the  white  Cubans.  Spaniards  differ  in 
appearance  and  characteristics  more  than  the  inhabitants  of 
almost  any  other  country.  The  history  of  Spain  for  a  thou- 
sand years  was  that  of  conquest,  of  colonization  and  assimi- 
lation of  its  native  people  with  its  conquerors  and  colonies. 
Phoenicians,  Greeks,  Romans,  Goths,  Moors  and  Jews  suc- 
cessively occupied  Spain,  and  with  the  exception  of  the  Jews 
controlled  its  government  and  amalgamated  with  its  people. 
Its  different  provinces  have  developed  different  types  of 
manhood,  and  Cuba  has  received  its  immigration  from  every 
province.  Its  generals,  officials,  nobility,  soldiery  and  its 
peasantry  alike  peopled  Cuba.  In  the  veins  of  the  Cuban 
mulatto  it  is  thus  possible  that  there  runs  an  infinitesimal 
current  of  the  blood  of  Phoenician,  Greek,  Roman,  Gothic 
and  Moorish  ancestors  transmitted  through  its  Spanish  pro- 
genitors. We  are  ourselves  becoming  a  very  mixed  popu- 
lation, and  yet  hardly  more  so  than  the  population  of  Cuba 
which  we  have  been  wont  to  call  Spanish. 

It  will  be  seen,  therefore,  that  the  different  classes  of  Cuban 
population  have  little  in  common,  except  a  desire  for  liberty, 
as  yet  scarcely  understood,  and  a  pride  of  country.  Whether 
these  two  common  ties  will  be  strong  enough  to  insure  an 
orderly,  well-balanced,  peaceful  government  remains  to  be 
seen.     The  elements  of  discord  are  in  full  play  now,  and  if 


156  Annaes  of  the  American  Academy 

these  alone  were  regarded  the  outlook  would  not  be  very- 
hopeful.  It  is  by  no  means  certain,  however,  that  the 
colored  citizens  in  Cuba  may  not  in  the  end  ally  themselves 
with  the  conservative  rather  than  with  the  revolutionary  and 
turbulent  forces.  A  hopeful  indication  of  this  is  found  in  the 
fact  that  in  the  province  of  Santiago,  where  the  colored  ele- 
ment is  numerically  stronger  than  in  any  other  province, 
delegates  in  the  convention  have  been  instructed  at  mass 
meetings  called  for  that  purpose  to  accept  the  amendment 
proposed  at  the  recent  session  of  Congress. 

The  results  of  education  will  not  be  immediately  manifest, 
but  perhaps  the  most  hopeful  sign  of  responsible  and  perma- 
nent government  in  Cuba  is  to  be  seen  in  the  educational 
work  already  begun  there.  If  the  next  few  years  can  be 
tided  over  successfully,  intelligence  will  doubtless  come  to 
the  rescue.  At  present  there  is  discord,  ignorance,  and, 
among  the  masses  of  the  people,  indifference.  We  must 
hope  that  prejudice  and  suspicion  between  those  who  have 
most  at  stake  will  be  allayed,  that  the  intelligent  and  con- 
servative element  will  more  and  more  assert  itself,  and  that 
the  great  need  of  Cuba  for  independence,  peace  and  prosperity 
will  unite  a  majority  of  its  people  to  labor  for  that  end. 

But  the  real  hope  for  a  free  Cuba  is  to  be  found  in  the 
friendly  advice  and  guidance,  and,  if  necessary,  the  assist- 
ance of  the  United  States.  There  will  be  no  American 
colonization  there  in  the  strict  sense  of  the  word.  That 
American  capital  will  go  there  as  soon  as  there  is  a  govern- 
ment under  which  its  safety  is  assured,  there  is  no  question  ; 
that  our  American  laborers  will  go  there  to  any  considerable 
extent  is  improbable,  not  that  climatic  conditions  are  such 
that  it  is  impossible  for  them  to  work  and  live  there,  but  that 
industrial  conditions  will  not,  for  a  long  time  at  least,  be  such 
as  to  furnish  inducements  to  the  American  who  desires  to 
support  himself  by  his  own  labor  to  emigrate  to  Cuba.  The 
island  may  easily  support  a  population  of  five  millions,  or, 
as  many  think,  a  much  larger  number  ;   but  the  question  of 


People  of  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico  157 

its  increase  of  population  depends  largely  upon  where  its 
laborers  are  to  come  from. 

There  is  little  prospect  that  the  colored  race  will  increase 
proportionately  from  natural  causes.  The  labor  required 
to  fully  develop  its  agricultural  industries  must  come  from 
abroad.  The  American  negro  is  no  more  likely  to  go 
there  than  the  white  laborer  of  the  United  States.  Indus- 
trially, then,  as  well  as  politically,  the  future  of  Cuba  depends 
largely  upon  its  immigration,  which  at  present  comes  from 
Northern  Spain  and  the  Canary  Islands.  These  immigrants, 
amounting  to  40,000  or  more  last  year,  are  still  Spaniards, 
but  may  be  classified  as  Spanish  peasantry.  They  seem 
adapted  to  the  climate,  and  the  wages  which  they  can 
command  far  exceed  what  they  can  obtain  in  their  home 
country.  They  are  industrious,  peaceable  and  domestic — in 
a  word,  calculated  to  make  good  citizens.  If  properly  treated 
by  the  capitalists  who  employ  them,  they  are  liable  to  consti- 
tute not  only  a  stable,  but  an  influential  part  of  the  popula- 
tion. Four  things,  then,  seem  to  promise  good  results  :  The 
guidance  and  aid  of  the  United  States,  the  education  of  Cuban 
children,  the  probable  conservatism  of  the  colored  population, 
and  the  industrial  and  peaceful  character  of  probable  immi- 
grants. The  revolutionary  class  will  not  at  once  abandon 
the  idea  that  they  alone  are  entitled  to  govern,  and  there 
will  doubtless  be  more  or  less  friction,  contention  and  dis- 
turbance, but  as  time  wears  on,  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  out  of 
confusion  order  may  come. 

The  hands  of  the  United  States  are  indeed  partially  tied. 
There  is  a  limit  beyond  which  it  may  not  go,  and  yet  within 
the  legitimate  limits  which  it  has  prescribed  for  itself  it  can 
do  much.  It  may  not  interfere  with  the  liberty  of  the  people 
of  Cuba  to  establish  an  independent  government,  republican 
in  form  and  fact ;  it  may,  and  must,  for  its  own  protection, 
and  in  the  discharge  of  obligations  from  which  it  cannot 
escape  if  it  would,  see  to  it  that  the  independence  of  Cuba 
shall  not  be  overthrown,  no  matter  from  what  quarter  it  may 


158  Annals  of  the;  American  Academy 

be  assailed,  and  that  life,  property  and  individual  rights 
shall  be  as  secure  there  as  in  the  United  States. 

That  the  relations  which  are  to  exist  between  the  United 
States  and  the  new  government  of  Cuba  must  be  closer  than 
those  between  us  and  any  other  foreign  country  will  be 
apparent  to  the  dullest  comprehension.  So  long  as  any 
doubt  exists  of  the  ability  of  Cuba  to  stand  alone,  the  United 
States  must  be  ready  to  support  her.  We  must  protect  her 
against  any  demands  which  will  impair  her  independence, 
and  against  any  internal  dissensions  which  may  threaten  the 
overthrow  of  republican  government.  In  thus  standing 
ready,  and  insisting  upon  our  right  to  protect  Cuba,  we  do 
not  at  all  contemplate  the  establishment  of  a  protectorate  in 
any  sense  in  which  that  term  has  been  used  in  international 
law.  Our  relations  with  Cuba  will  be  unique.  We  may 
best  express  them  by  saying  that  we  claim  the  right  to  be 
recognized  as  the  guarantor  of  Cuban  independence  and  of 
the  stability  of  its  government.  To  require  less  than  this 
would  be  an  abandonment  of  both  self-interest  and  duty. 

We  propose  to  leave  Cuba  free  to  make  treaties  with 
foreign  powers  not  inconsistent  with  her  independence ;  to 
enact  all  legislation  which  a  free  and  independent  government 
may  enact,  to  manage  her  own  affairs  in  her  own  way, 
provided  only  that  she  does  not  thereby  imperil  her  own 
safety  and  our  peace.  And  yet  our  right  to  intervene  to  save 
Cuba  even  from  herself  must  be  recognized.  We  cannot 
permit  any  foreign  power  to  obtain  a  foothold  in  Cuba.  We 
cannot  permit  disturbances  there  which  threaten  the  over- 
throw of  her  government.  We  cannot  tolerate  a  condition 
in  which  life  and  property  shall  be  insecure.  In  all  this  our 
position  is  that  of  unselfishness.  We  do  not  seek  our  own 
aggrandisement ;  we  do  not  ask  reimbursement  for  the  lives 
and  treasure  spent  in  the  effort  to  secure  the  blessings  of 
liberty  and  free  government  to  Cuba. 

We  have  undertaken  to  do  for  her  people  what  no  nation 
in  all  history  has  ever  undertaken  to  do  for  another,  namely, 


People  of  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico  159 

to  overthrow  an  inhuman  and  iniquitous  government  in 
order  that  a  just,  humane  and  beneficent  government  may  be 
established  and  maintained  in  its  stead.  Half  of  our  work 
is  accomplished,  half  of  it  remains  to  be  done.  We  have  no 
doubt  that  the  remaining  half  of  our  duty  will  be  performed 
in  the  same  spirit  and  with  the  same  unselfishness  which  has 
characterized  our  work  from  its  commencement.  Having 
put  our  hand  to  the  plow,  we  may  not,  and  will  not,  look 
back.  It  is  a  great  and  glorious  work  which  we  have 
undertaken.  The  difficulties  and  intricacies  which  confront 
us  should  only  stimulate  us  to  a  more  conscientious  perform- 
ance of  duty.  In  spite  of  all  discouragement  we  look  for 
a  free  and  regenerated  Cuba,  for  which  we  may  with  self- 
respect  and  even  pride  stand  sponsor. 


THE  SPANISH  POPULATION  OF 
CUBA  AND  PORTO  RICO.  BY  CHARLES 
M,    PEPPER,    WASHINGTON,    D.    C, 


(161) 


THE  SPANISH  POPULATION  OF  CUBA  AND 
PORTO  RICO. 

By  Mr.  Charles  M.  Pepper, 

Of  Washington,  D.  C. 

In  any  discussion  of  the  natives  of  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico, 
it  is  not  possible  entirely  to  separate  the  Latin  from  the 
African  race.  They  exist  together  in  those  Islands  and 
their  future  is  woven  together  inseparably.  Each  race  has 
kept  its  own  identity,  yet  there  has  been  a  reciprocal  or  a 
mutual  influence.  The  African  has  benefited  by  the  toler- 
ance and  kindlier  consideration,  the  less  pronounced  antip- 
athy, of  the  Spaniard  as  compared  with  the  Anglo-Saxon. 
Conversely  the  Negro  has  had  a  steadying  influence,  if  I 
may  so  call  it,  on  the  Spaniard.  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that 
this  has  been  the  result  of  racial  intermixture,  but  rather 
that  the  Negro  living  side  by  side  with  the  Latin  race  has 
modified  the  Latin  temperament. 

It  is  well  to  have  this  knowledge  at  the  outset  as  it  also  is 
well  to  recognize  the  status  of  the  Negro.  That  the  advance 
which  has  been  made  may  be  lost  by  a  disproportionate 
growth  of  black  population  is  the  spectre  of  a  brooding  imagi- 
nation. Porto  Rico  has  no  room  for  newcomers  of  the 
laboring  class.  The  present- day  problem  there  is  to  find  an 
outlet  for  an  overcrowded  population.  Cuba  can  support  six 
times  the  existing  number  of  inhabitants,  but  economic  and 
political  causes  have  combined  to  discourage  schemes  of 
Negro  colonization,  while  white  immigration  from  Spain  has 
been  in  progress  for  the  last  two  j^ears  and  is  certain  to  con- 
tinue. With  a  perception  of  these  facts  it  is  not  necessary 
to  controvert  the  presumption  of  the  Caucasians  in  Cuba 
and  Porto  Rico  being  smothered  by  a  black  cloud.  There 
will  be  no  smothering  of  the  African  either,  but  there  will 

(163) 


164  Annals  of  the;  American  Academy 

be  a  white  preponderance  large  enough  to  settle  the  race 
question. 

We  may  analyze  and  study  the  natives  of  Cuba  and  Porto 
Rico  who  are  of  Spanish  stock  with  better  understanding 
when  we  know  that  in  each  Island  they  comprise  substan- 
tially two-thirds  of  the  inhabitants,  a  little  less  in  Porto 
Rico  and  a  little  more  in  Cuba.  This  is  shown  in  the  census 
compiled  under  the  direction  of  the  War  Department  by 
experts.  It  is  a  pleasure  to  refer  to  a  government  publica- 
tion so  comprehensive,  so  well  digested  and  so  trustworthy 
as  these  volumes.  They  furnish  an  example  of  the  value  of 
utilizing  trained  intelligence. 

By  this  census  we  find  that  in  Porto  Rico  out  of  a  total 
of  953,243  the  native-born  inhabitants  number  939,371,  of 
whom  578,000  are  white  and  361,367  colored.  In  Cuba  the 
proportion  is  1,067,354  whites  to  505,443  blacks  and  mulat- 
toes.  That  means  a  full  million  persons  of  Spanish  birth  or 
descent. 

' '  We  all  know, ' '  says  Walter  Bagehot,  ' '  how  much  a 
man  is  apt  to  be  like  his  ancestors."  This  observation 
applies  to  the  natives  of  both  Islands,  but  with  greater  force, 
I  think,  to  those  of  Cuba.  In  both  instances  we  may  be 
sure  they  take  after  their  ancestors  from  Spain  and  its 
adjoining  possessions.  Nor  is  the  ancestry  remote.  "  Two 
hundred  years,"  said  a  chronicler  nearly  a  century  ago  in 
describing  Porto  Rico  and  her  people,  ' '  are  lost  in  obscurity. ' ' 
For  an  understanding  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  present  day  it 
is  not  necessary  to  grope  in  darkness  seeking  to  recover 
those  lost  pages  of  history.  We  know  that  as  in  Cuba  the 
Indian  race  is  extinct  and  that  the  Indian  mixture  of  which 
some  travelers  have  discoursed  is  an  imaginary  one. 

The  ancestry  of  the  present  generation  of  Porto  Rican 
natives  need  not  be  traced  back  more  than  a  century  and  a 
quarter.  Originally  the  immigration  was  from  the  southern 
part  of  Spain,  Andalusia  and  Castile  having  the  right  to 
people  the  Island  to  the  exclusion  of  the  other  provinces  of 


Population  of  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico  165 

the  Peninsula.  Andalusia  furnished  the  larger  number  and 
left  the  stronger  impress,  but  in  time  the  prohibition  was 
raised  and  the  emigrants  mingled  in  one  stream,  which  had 
its  sources  in  all  parts  of  Spain.  Ultimately  the  stream 
became  a  swollen  one  and  the  little  Island,  through  immigra- 
tion and  natural  increase,  had  all  the  inhabitants  she  could 
sustain.  This  happened  a  good  many  years  ago,  so  it  may 
be  said  that  the  major  proportion  of  the  natives  of  Porto 
Rico  are  of  Spanish  blood  two  or  three  generations  removed. 
The  result  we  have  to-day  is  a  thin-blooded  people,  living 
chiefly  on  vegetable  diet  and  physically  degenerated  from 
their  sturdy  ancestors.  It  is  an  agricultural  population,  the 
bulk  of  which  is  called  peons.  The  majority  of  the  peons 
live  worse  than  the  field  laborers,  so  far  as  I  have  been  able 
to  observe,  anywhere  else  in  the  West  Indies.  Their  dwell- 
ings are  very  small,  thatched  huts  raised  two  or  three  feet 
from  the  ground  and  rarely  containing  more  than  one  room, 
though  sometimes  there  is  a  board  or  a  canvas  partition. 
The  number  of  inmates  seldom  is  less  than  half  a  dozen  and 
more  often  is  ten  or  twelve.  They  are  prolific  in  their  pov- 
erty. Most  of  them  do  not  own  their  huts.  These  belong 
to  the  coffee,  tobacco  or  sugar  planters.  It  is  a  consequence 
of  the  old  political  conditions,  which  kept  the  peons  practi- 
cally as  serfs  of  the  soil. 

The  more  general  term  for  the  Porto  Rico  countrymen  is 
gibaros.  The  name  implies  a  larger  degree  of  personal 
independence  than  applies  to  the  peons,  for  the  gibaros  often 
are  small  land  owners.  Both  peons  and  gibaros  are  a  peace- 
ful, easygoing  people,  guileless  and  trustful.  As  I  have 
found  them  they  are  obliging  and  hospitable,  though  the 
population  is  too  crowded  for  unstinted  hospitality.  The 
observer  from  the  north  always  calls  them  lazy.  Usually 
they  are  pictured  by  travelers  as  lolling  in  hammocks  or 
twanging  the  gourd  guitar  while  waiting  for  the  bread-fruit, 
the  orange  or  the  cocoanut  to  drop  from  the  overhanging 
tree  into  their  mouths.     Their  amusements  are  sedentary, 


1 66  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

the  cocking  main  being  the  chief  one  because  it  requires  the 
least  exertion.  I  am  not  going  to  lighten  the  shades  of  this 
picture,  yet  one  or  two  observations  may  be  in  point.  The 
indolence  of  the  tropics  is  inherent.  The  visitor  from  the 
temperate  zone  who  has  had  previous  experience,  if  he 
wants  to  do  anything  calling  for  effort  is  wise  enough  to  do 
it  at  once,  for  as  the  days  pass  he  has  less  inclination  for 
exertion,  even  where  pleasure  or  entertainment  is  the  object. 
If  the  reservoirs  of  energy  stored  up  by  the  native  of  the 
north  are  so  soon  exhausted,  how  much  should  be  expected 
from  a  people  who  must  go  back  fifty,  one  hundred  or  one 
hundred  and  fifty  years  for  their  original  storehouse  of 
energy  ? 

During  the  Spanish  rule  the  government  was  placed  so 
far  above  the  people  of  Porto  Rico  that  they  are  not  to  be 
blamed  if,  in  the  beginning,  they  abuse  the  broader  privi- 
leges which  have  come  to  them  under  American  institutions. 
Their  first  tendency  was  intolerance.  When  elections  were 
held  they  applied  literally  the  doctrine  that  the  spoils  belong 
to  the  victors.  Perhaps  American  politicians  would  take 
this  as  evidence  of  a  highly  developed  capacity  for  self- 
government.  They  proposed  not  only  to  fill  the  offices  with 
their  own  friends,  but  also  to  make  their  enemies  pay  all  the 
taxes.  It  was  simply  the  rebound  from  conditions  under 
which  they  had  no  part  in  filling  the  offices  and  no  share  in 
raising  the  taxes. 

The  tendency  to  political  abstractions  may  be  noted  as  a 
part  of  the  Latin  temperament.  An  outcropping  of  it  was 
seen  in  Porto  Rico.  When  the  American  Congress  remitted 
two  million  dollars  of  revenue  to  the  Island,  one  enthusiast 
proposed  that  the  sum  should  be  expended  in  erecting  a 
magnificent  Temple  of  Justice.  The  practical  American 
officials  spent  the  money  in  building  roads  and  school- 
houses. 
£- — In  Cuba  native-born  persons,  whether  white  or  black,  or 
of  foreign  parentage,  are  called  Criollos,  or  Creoles.     How- 


Population  of  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico  167 

ever,  in  common  usage  the  term  more  often  is  applied  to  the 
white  Cubans,  and  this  means  chiefly  the  inhabitants  who 
are  of  Spanish  descent.  In  the  fierce  protests  against  bad 
government  the  line  between  the  Spaniards  of  to-day — that 
is  those  born  in  the  Peninsula  and  its  adjacent  Islands — 
and  the  Spaniards  of  yesterday — that  is  those  whose  fathers, 
grandfathers  and  great-grandfathers  were  born  there — some- 
times used  to  be  drawn  as  if  they  were  alien  and  antago- 
nistic races.  But  it  does  not  need  a  scientific  analysis  to 
caution  us  against  mistaking  passing  and  justifiable  political 
passion  for  racial  antipathy  when  the  race  is  one. 

Here  I  am  reminded  of  what  James  Anthony  Froude,  the 
English  historian,  said  when  in  his  despairing  survey  of  the 
British  West  Indies  he  turned  aside  to  contrast  them  with  the 
Spanish  possessions.  "We  English,"  he  wrote,  "have 
built  in  those  Islands  as  if  we  were  but  passing  visitors 
wanting  only  tenements  to  be  occupied  for  a  time.  The 
Spaniards  built  as  they  build  in  Castile  and  they  carried 
with  them  their  laws,  their  habits,  their  institutions  and 
their  creed.  .  .  .  Whatever  the  eventual  fate  of  Cuba, 
the  Spanish  race  has  taken  root  there,  and  is  visibly  destined 
to  remain.  Spanish,  at  any  rate,  they  are  to  the  bone  and 
marrow,  and  Spanish  they  will  continue." 

We  must  go  back  to  Catalonia,  Andalusia  and  the  shores 
of  the  Mediterranean  ;  to  the  Canaries  and  the  Balearic 
Islands  ;  to  Asturias,  Galicia  and  the  Basque  provinces  of 
Spain  for  the  customs,  habits,  traditions,  creed,  amusements, 
language  and  tendencies  of  the  natives  of  Cuba.  Prefer- 
ably we  should  give  the  most  attention  to  Catalonia,  Galicia 
and  Asturias,  for  it  is  from  these  three  provinces  that  the 
major  portion  of  the  later  immigration  has  come. 

A  certain  village  in  the  far  interior  of  Cuba  was  a  hot- 
house of  revolutionary  agitation.  I  visited  it  at  the  close 
of  the  war  when  the  American  military  authorities  were 
concerned  over  the  threat  of  reprisals  against  the  Spaniards. 
The  Cubans  professed  to  hate  the  whole  race  and  in  those 


1 68  Annai^s  of  the;  American  Academy 

days  when  long-restrained  passion  was  finding  vent  they 
thought  they  did  hate  their  own  parent  stem.  They  told 
me  the  two  classes  had  nothing  in  common.  Yet  they  had 
everything  in  common.  The  well  from  which  the  children 
were  drawing  water  was  of  even  more  ancient  origin  than 
Spanish,  for  it  was  of  the  older  Moorish  construction  known 
as  the  nana.  That  day  there  was  a  fiesta  or  church  holiday. 
The  baile,  or  dance,  which  was  a  feature  of  the  evening  cele- 
bration, and  which  I  witnessed,  varied  only  a  shade  from  the 
representation  of  the  customs  of  Galicia,  which  I  had  seen 
at  the  leading  Spanish  theatre  in  Havana  a  few  evenings 
previously.  The  music  was  an  air  which  had  floated  over 
from  the  Gulf  of  Biscay.  The  entertainment  provided  me 
at  the  posada,  or  inn,  was  such  as  I  had  read  of  in  the  pages 
of  Gil  Bias.  The  houses  were  like  those  in  an  eighteenth 
century  print  of  Don  Quixote.  On  a  later  day  mass  was 
celebrated  by  the  priest  for  the  repose  of  the  soul  of  Antonio 
Maceo  and  other  Cuban  insurgents,  and  the  ceremonial  was 
that  of  the  Spanish  Church  in  the  middle  ages.  After  see- 
ing these  things  I  did  not  give  much  heed  to  the  Cuban's 
talk  that  they  hated  the  whole  Spanish  race.  Root  and 
branch  were  too  much  alike  for  the  hatred  to  endure. 

Then  there  is  the  guajiro,  or  countryman,  seated  at  the 
door  of  his  bohio,  or  palm-thatched  cabin,  playing  his  guitar. 
Usually  he  is  portrayed  in  his  broad  straw  hat  with  fringed 
edges,  the  front  turned  in  a  flap  and  exposing  his  honest  face 
while  the  back  slopes  down  over  his  neck.  The  hat  is 
known  as  the  sanjuanero,  because  of  its  universal  use  on 
the  feast  day  of  St.  John  the  Baptist,  a  popular  Spanish 
holiday.  To  the  accompaniment  of  the  guitar  is  sung  a 
ballad,  called  a  decima,  or  a  cancion.  All  this  is  a  character- 
istically Cuban  picture.  The  traveler  will  see  it  wherever 
he  goes  throughout  the  Island.  Yet  it  is  a  Spanish  picture, 
too,  and  the  decimas  and  canciones,  though  the  subjects  are 
local,  are  frequently  mere  repetitions  of  the  provincial  songs 
and  ballads  heard  among  the  Spanish  peasantry. 


Population  of  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico  169 

Differences  are  noted  in  the  natives  of  the  different  prov- 
inces of  Cuba,  due  chiefly  to  the  immigration  from  which 
was  drawn  the  original  stock.  The  Spanish  strain  of  blood 
is  preserved  in  its  greatest  purity  in  the  central  region  of 
Puerto  Principe  or  Camagiiey.  Though  sparsely  settled, 
three-fourths  of  the  population  of  this  section  is  white.  For 
half  a  century  the  Camagiieyans  were  the  most  intense 
revolutionists.  They  vindicated  their  Spanish  fighting  ances- 
try by  their  armed  opposition  to  Spanish  government.  Their 
free,  open-air  life  and  their  isolation  from  the  rest  of  the 
Island  strengthened  their  independence  of  a  governing  coun- 
try across  the  seas,  yet  they  kept  unchanged  Castilian  tradi- 
tions and  usages.  Sometimes  it  has  seemed  to  me  that 
among  these  people  could  be  traced  the  Moorish  blood  and 
a  survival  of  the  customs  of  Granada.  The  men  are 
stronger  physically  and  more  responsive  mentally  than  in 
other  parts  of  Cuba,  and  of  the  women  it  has  been  said  that 
they  present  the  Spanish  type  slightly  modified  and  perhaps 
embellished  by  the  soft  skies  of  the  tropics.  The  inland 
city  of  Puerto  Principe,  with  its  narrow  streets  and  over- 
hanging balconies  is  a  perfect  reproduction  of  many  towns 
in  Spain.  I  have  been  told  by  travelers  that  the  houses 
might  be  mistakened  for  those  of  Seville  or  Cordova.  And 
it  must  be  said  that  heretofore  the  inhabitants  of  Camagiiey 
have  shown  themselves  as  unprogressive  in  public  improve- 
ments, and  as  strongly  opposed  to  innovations  as  the  old 
towns  of  Spain.  They  have  inordinate  pride,  a  true  Spanish 
trait,  the  mark  of  ignorance  and  isolation.  This  quality  is 
redeemed  by  their  courtesy  and  hospitality. 

We  may  be  asked  to  believe  that  all  the  sturdy  qualities 
of  the  Spanish  peasantry  have  been  lost  in  the  transfusion 
of  the  tropics,  like  a  flower  that  has  gone  to  seed;  but  while 
allowance  must  be  made  for  the  modifications  of  tempera- 
ment due  to  climate  and  environment,  I  think  we  will  find 
that  the  native  Cuban  of  to-day,  when  the  depths  of  his 
nature  are  sounded,  is  not  materially  different  from  his  Cas- 


170  Annates  of  the  American  Academy 

tilian  forbear.  It  has  been  well  said  that  the  peasantry  were 
the  secret  of  Spain's  greatness  in  the  past,  and  perhaps  may- 
be the  secret  of  her  greatness  in  the  future;  a  peasantry  who 
were  noted  for  their  freedom,  independence,  endurance  and 
native  nobility.  In  Asturias  every  toiler  was  a  prince;  in 
Castile  every  man  was  an  hidalgo.  Says  a  recent  writer  in 
treating  of  the  Spanish  people:  "Proud,  self-respecting- 
dignity;  simple,  sober  habits;  native  good  manners  and 
kindness  are  the  characteristics  of  all  classes  of  the  nation." 

How  far  have  these  characteristics  been  changed  by  trans- 
plantation to  tropical  surroundings  ?  The  Spaniard  in  Cuba 
still  prides  himself  that  he  is  un  hombre  serioso,  a  serious- 
minded  man.  As  for  the  native  Cubans,  during  the  last  four 
years  I  have  had  the  opportunity  to  observe  them  under  all 
conditions,  though  more  frequently  in  adversity  than  in 
prosperity.  The  traits  described  are  of  an  agricultural 
people,  and  the  Cubans  are  essentially  an  agricultural  people, 
and  must  continue  so.  Of  their  hospitality  no  one  who  has 
traveled  over  the  Island  can  entertain  a  doubt.  It  is  simple 
and  genuine.  No  conventional  hypocrisy  gilds  it.  It  has 
been  said  that  hospitality  wanes  as  civilization  advances.  If 
that  be  true,  whoever  has  known  country  life  in  Cuba  will 
rejoice  secretly  over  the  slow  advance  of  a  supposedly  superior 
civilization. 

Politeness  and  courtesy  go  with  this  hospitality.  Then 
there  is  an  obliging  disposition  and  a  goodnature  which  is 
one  of  the  defects  of  character.  The  Cuban  does  not  like  to 
hurt  your  feelings  by  telling  you  unpleasant  truths,  so  he  is 
apt  to  agree  with  you.  Though  he  knows  you  are  wrong 
and  will  carry  away  wrong  impressions,  he  will  let  you  do 
so  rather  than  contradict  you. 

Another  example  of  goodnature  is  seen  in  the  blunted 
moral  sensibility  which  has  come  from  long  training  under 
corrupt  government.  The  Cuban  or  Spaniard  does  not  fully 
subscribe  to  the  saying  ' '  to  rob  the  state  is  not  to  rob. ' ' 
When  he  knows  of  some  one  who  is  stealing  he  may  remon- 


Population  of  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico         171 

strate  privately  with  the  thief.  He  even  may  give  a  hint  of 
the  peculation,  yet  he  shrinks  from  open  denunciation  and 
from  the  inconvenience  which  may  be  caused  to  himself  and 
to  the  thief  by  a  public  exposure.  It  is  his  goodnature  that 
makes  him  recoil  from  the  penalty  of  wrongdoing  just  as  it 
causes  him  to  sanction  the  wasting  of  public  funds  for  the 
benefit  of  individuals.  This  goodnature  is  one  of  the  obsta- 
cles to  many  reforms  in  government,  or  measures  which 
appear  to  American  eyes  as  reforms.  To  my  own  mind  it 
always  will  be  a  question  whether  the  jury  system  is  a  real 
palladium  of  liberty  among  a  goodnatured  people. 

The  temperance  and  sobriety  of  all  classes  of  the  Cuban 
population  are  partly  due  to  climatic  influences,  yet  there  is 
a  moderation  in  methods  of  living  and  in  recreation  which  is 
a  Spanish  inheritance  and  is  not  due  to  climate.  It  requires 
an  effort  on  the  part  of  the  strenuous  American  to  be  temper- 
ate in  an3'thing,  but  the  Cubans  are  temperate  without  effort. 
Their  peaceful  disposition  is  universal.  They  are  not 
quarrelsome  among  themselves  or  with  strangers.  A  darker 
shade  of  their  character  may  be  found  in  the  revengefulness 
with  which  supposed  injuries  are  righted ;  hence  some- 
times the  ambush,  the  knife  in  the  dark,  even  the  assassina- 
tion, and  the  burning  of  the  sugar  planter's  cane  for 
revenge. 

There  is  also  the  duplicity  which  is  employed  to  foil 
policies  and  purposes.  Duplicity  is  the  weapon  of  the 
weak.  Without  it  revolution  against  the  superior  power  of 
Spain  never  could  have  succeeded.  While  it  exists  among 
native  Cubans  to  an  unpleasant  extent  it  is  offset  by  a  high 
degree  of  trust  in  those  who  gain  their  goodwill.  This  is 
another  trait  of  a  people  who  can  be  led  but  not  driven. 
Distrust  and  suspicion  once  aroused  the  sullen  characteristics 
appear.  These  are  one  manifestation  of  passive  or  moral 
resistance.  They  are  worthy  the  study  of  statesmen,  for  it 
was  the  passive  resistance  of  the  Cuban  people,  the  natives 
of  Spanish  origin,  which  thwarted  the  government  of  Spain 


172  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

in  the  dying  years  of  the  nineteenth  century  and  ended  the 
glorious  pageant  of  colonial  history  which  was  ushered  in 
with  the  discoveries  of  Columbus. 

This  positive  resistance  was  illustrated  in  its  highest  form 
during  the  period  of  insurrection  which  was  marked  by  the 
Weyler  reconcentration.  There  is  in  the  Spanish  nature  an 
indifference  to  physical  suffering,  of  which  the  Inquisition, 
the  cruelties  of  the  Conquistadores,  the  extermination  of  the 
native  Indians,  are  the  black  monuments  of  history.  The 
passive  manifestation  was  seen  during  the  reconcentration, 
and  was  seen  in  heroic  aspects,  too.  Stoic  philosophy, 
inflexible  determination  were  shown  by  a  people  conscious 
of  their  own  doom  of  extinction,  giving  their  moral  support 
to  a  revolution  which  they  were  too  weak  to  abet  physically, 
and  offering  a  passive  opposition  to  the  military  measures  of 
the  Spanish  government  which  was  more  potent  than  could 
have  been  an  army  in  the  field.  When  the  campesinos, 
gjtajiros,  or  countrymen,  endured  all  this,  they  were  desig- 
nated as  pacificos.  The  country  inhabitants  of  Cuba  to-day 
rightly  might  be  called  pacificos,  for  with  anything  like 
good  government  they  are  the  most  peaceful  people  in  the 
world. 

Often  I  witnessed  this  same  stoicism  or  physical  endurance 
among  the  Spanish  soldiers.  The  recollection  of  it  causes 
me  to  smile  when  the  effort  is  made  to  draw  a  fundamental 
distinction  between  the  native  Cubans  and  their  Spanish 
ancestors.  Seeing  the  peasant  lads  of  Spain  bearing  the 
neglect  and  abuse  of  their  officers  with  the  patience  of  dumb 
brutes;  watching  them  die  by  the  thousands  from  the  fevers; 
observing  their  distress  scarcely  less  keen  than  that  of  the 
reconcentradoes,  I  wondered  at  their  failure  to  mutiny  and 
speculated  on  the  processes  which  through  the  centuries  had 
produced  this  docility,  yet  the  one  point  always  stood  out 
and  this  was  their  capacity  to  sustain  suffering.  Cuban 
reconcentrado  and  Castilian  soldier  lad  alike  showed  it,  but 
on  the  part  of  the  soldier  it  was  passive  endurance  alone, 


Population  of  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico    173 

while  with  the  mass  of  the  Cuban  population  it  was  passive 
resistance.  Moreover,  on  their  side  always  were  some  bold 
leaders  among  whom  the  spirit  of  revolt  was  active,  and 
with  the  Negro  infusion  they  kept  up  an  insurrectionary 
movement  which  dragged  the  pacificos,  half  doubtingly  and 
half  sympathetically,  after  them.  Kindred  to  these  quali- 
ties of  endurance,  which  perhaps  is  only  one  form  of  fatalism, 
are  others.  They  are  apathy,  lethargy,  inertia,  lack  of  the 
initiative  faculty. 

It  may  excite  surprise  to  characterize  as  sentimental  a 
people  who  in  their  endurance  and  their  resistance  have  so 
many  elements  of  stoicism,  yet  the  Cubans  of  all  classes  are 
sentimental  in  the  highest  degree.  By  sentiment  I  do  not 
mean  merely  I^atin  emotionalism,  which  is  temperamental. 
With  these  people  there  is  the  deepest  affection  for  their 
land.  No  one  who  has  dwelt  under  its  kindly  skies,  and 
who  has  experienced  the  impressiveness  of  the  palm-tree 
landscape,  can  fail  to  sympathize  with  that  feeling.  The 
sentiment  now  is  seeking  for  the  realization  of  aspirations 
and  ideals  in  the  symbolism  of  a  Cuban  flag.  That  sym- 
bolism the  United  States  is  striving  to  guarantee  under  the 
lightest  of  restrictions  and  without  thwarting  the  patriotic 
Cuban  aspiration  for  independence  which,  however  disap- 
pointing in  its  first  results,  is  worthy  of  respect. 

From  what  has  been  stated  of  the  characteristics  and  traits 
of  the  natives  of  Cuba,  an  idea  may  be  had  of  the  lines 
along  which  their  development  should  be  sought.  It  should 
not  be  by  doing  violence  to  customs,  traditions,  laws  and 
institutions  which  have  been  inherited  from  their  Spanish 
ancestors,  or  to  sentiments  which  have  sprung  from  the  soil 
and  have  become  part  of  their  own  being.  The  develop- 
ment of  the  Cuban  people  that  is  to  be  a  homogeneous 
people  is  even  more  a  social  and  industrial  problem  than  a 
question  of  political  government.  Here  we  are  likely  to  be 
met  with  the  usual  off-hand  assumption  that  the  indolence  of 
the  tropics  bars  progress.     I  think  a  more  correct  definition 


174  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

of  this  indolence  of  the  tropics  was  that  given  by  a  Porto 
Rican  author.  He  called  it  ' '  the  negative  inclination  to 
work. ' '  When  we  approach  the  sociological  side  we  may- 
have  repeated  to  us  Mr.  Ingersoll's  famous  word  picture  of 
a  colony  of  New  England  preachers  and  Yankee  school- 
ma'ams  established  in  the  West  Indies  and  the  third  genera- 
tion riding  bareback  on  Sunday  to  the  cock  fights. 

On  the  industrial  side  it  is  the  old  idea  of  slave  labor  and 
later  of  coolie  labor  as  the  only  mechanism  which  is  capable 
of  working  under  a  burning  sky.  leaving  out  the  human 
element  in  this  manner,  naturally  we  must  exclude  the  stim- 
ulus and  incentive  to  greater  enjoyment  and  greater  comfort 
in  living.  I  am  one  of  those  who,  from  somewhat  limited 
observation,  believe  that  the  negative  inclination  to  work 
can  be  turned  into  a  positive  disposition  to  labor.  In  Hawaii, 
in  Cuba,  Porto  Rico  and  other  West  India  Islands  it  always 
has  seemed  to  me  a  question  of  the  management  of  men  rather 
than  of  abstract  deductions  regarding  labor  in  the  tropics. 
That  the  human  energies  shall  be  exerted  with  the  same 
fierce  zeal  or  the  same  sustained  effort  as  in  the  north  we 
do  not  expect,  but  sustained  effort  is  not  impossible. 

Philosophical  generalizations  in  dealing  with  this  subject 
are  so  easy  that  I  hesitate  to  descend  from  that  high  plane 
to  the  level  of  concrete  instances  which  may  controvert  phi- 
losophy.    Yet  here  are  a  few  illustrations. 

We  hardly  need  be  told  that  in  Porto  Rico  most  of  the 
natives  go  barefoot.  An  American  official  who  was  charged 
with  penitentiary  administration  was  distressed  by  the  idle- 
ness of  the  convicts.  He  set  them  to  work  at  various  use- 
ful occupations.  One  of  these  occupations  which  they 
learned  most  readily  was  making  shoes.  Few  of  these  con- 
vict shoemakers  ever  had  worn  foot-leather.  When  some 
of  those  whose  sentences  were  light  were  released  their 
first  move  was  to  seek  work  in  order  to  earn  money  with 
which  to  buy  shoes.  The  American  official  did  not  pretend 
to  be  a  political  economist,  but  when  he  got  to  thinking  it 


Population  of  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico  175 

over  he  reached  the  conclusion  that  the  Porto  Rican  natives 
would  work  harder  whenever  they  became  possessed  with 
the  notion  that  there  was  more  comfort  in  wearing  shoes 
than  in  going  barefoot.  I  think  he  was  right.  American 
contractors  who  were  building  bridges,  constructing  roads 
and  doing  other  work  of  that  kind,  always  complained  of 
the  laziness  of  the  natives,  yet  some  of  them  would  admit 
that  when  they  put  the  incentive  of  more  comfort  before  the 
peons  or  laborers  they  got  better  results. 

In  Havana  last  winter  an  electric  railway  was  being  con- 
structed and  much  of  the  work  had  to  be  done  under  high 
pressure.  It  was  in  charge  of  a  shrewd  young  American 
engineer  who  at  one  time  had  2,700  men  under  him.  Every- 
body predicted  his  failure  in  completing  the  contract.  Every- 
body was  sure  that  the  white  and  the  black  Cubans  and 
the  Spanish  peasants  could  not  be  relied  on.  The  engineer 
did  not  argue  the  proposition.  He  knew  human  nature  and 
he  knew  how  to  select  good  subordinates.  They  in  their 
turn  knew  how  to  handle  men.  They  urged  the  laborers  by 
example  and  they  set  forth  the  inducements  for  hard  work. 
The  electric  railway  was  finished  on  time.  The  young 
American  told  me  that  the  labor  capacity  of  the  Havana 
individual  workingman  was  as  high  as  the  labor  capacity  of 
the  individual  workingman  in  Pittsburg.  On  that  calcula- 
tion he  completed  his  contract. 

Some  of  us  who  had  known  Cuba  in  the  days  when  the 
torches  of  the  insurgents  and  the  torches  of  the  Spanish 
troops  were  rendering  it  a  charred  wilderness,  were  surprised 
this  season  to  note  everywhere  the  evidences  of  recupera- 
tion. All  the  planters  were  ruined  and  few  of  them  were 
able  to  get  the  money  with  which  to  replant  their  estates, 
yet  the  sugar  crop  this  year  is  larger  than  it  has  been  for 
six  years  past.  The  bankers  in  Havana  and  the  railway 
managers  all  over  the  Island,  knowing  the  poverty  of 
resources,  have  been  surprised  at  the  extent  of  the  cane 
planting.     Many  of  them  told  me  that  they  hardly  knew 


176  Annai<s  of  the  American  Academy 

how  it  was  done,  but  that  the  country  people  somehow  man- 
aged to  do  it.  They  wanted  their  homes  again  and  they 
wanted  some  of  the  comforts  of  life.  That  was  the  induce- 
ment. An  indolent  people,  without  incentive  to  shake  off 
tropical  lethargy,  never  would  have  done  it.  I  could  give  a 
dozen  similar  cases  in  which  these  Cuban  countrymen  were 
aroused  from  their  apathy,  but  the  recital  would  take  too 
long. 

Can  we  forecast  the  future  from  these  scattered  instances? 
Probably  the  philosopher  will  say  no,  but  I  believe 
Cuban  guajiro  and  the  Porto  Rican  gibaro  can  be  made  to 
want  more  to  eat;  to  desire  a  larger  cabin  with  something 
besides  a  palm  thatching;  can  develop  an  ambition  to  provide 
for  his  housewife  more  kitchen  utensils  than  the  single  pot 
or  kettle  which  is  hung  over  the  charcoal  fire;  can  be  induced 
to  long  for  straw  mattings  and  chairs  for  his  humble  dwell- 
ing; to  emulate  his  neighbor  in  procuring  an  extra  calico 
dress  for  his  wife  and  daughters,  and  something  besides  a 
ragged  pair  of  duck  or  linen  trousers  and  a  cheap  cotton 
shirt  for  himself.  In  my  mind's  eye  I  also  see  the  time 
when  through  some  neighbor's  example  he  will  want  to  have 
his  children  going  to  the  country  school,  and  his  pride  will 
cause  him  to  exert  himself  laboriously  so  that  they  may  be 
clothed  with  more  garments  than  has  been  the  custom  in  the 
tropics.  These  are  homely  illustrations  and  may  carry  no 
profound  truths,  yet  let  this  condition  of  emulation  apply  to 
a  million  people  and  let  the  inducements  to  higher  living  be 
set  forth,  is  it  certain  then  that  the  ease  of  supplying  the 
bare  needs  of  existence  in  a  warm  country  will  clog  all  the 
incentives  and  the  stimulus  to  labor  ? 

Of  what  might  be  called  the  political  traits  or  the  charac- 
teristics for  self-government  I  shall  have  to  treat  briefly. 
Something  of  them  may  be  learned  from  what  has  been  said 
of  the  habits,  customs,  traditions  and  environment.  For  a 
century  only  the  destructive  tendencies  of  the  Cubans  could 
find   expression  ;  hence   conspiracies,  revolts,  insurrections 


Population  of  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico  177 

and  active  or  passive  revolution.  The  great  Nation  which 
has  most  to  do  with  the  future  development  of  Cuba  and  her 
people,  of  all  perils  will  beware  of  arousing  their  passive 
resistance.  A  discerning  observer  from  Spain  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  last  insurrection,  told  his  countrymen  that 
passive  resistance  was  the  characteristic  of  the  Island.  Does 
the  country  produce  it?  he  asked,  and  then  continued. 
Perhaps  it  is  the  climate  ?  Perhaps  it  is  the  child  of  tropi- 
cal influences  ?  He  did  not  answer  his  own  question  of  its 
origin  satisfactorily,  but  he  noted  that  this  passive  resistance 
was  the  hidden  rock  against  which  the  strongest  will  and  the 
most  resolute  purpose  were  shattered.  I,et  the  United 
States  avoid  the  hidden  rock. 

While  the  Cuban  character  for  a  century  was  shown  in  its 
destructive  tendencies,  a  final  judgment  cannot  be  formed 
of  its  constructive  and  administrative  capacity  by  a  trial  of 
two  or  three  years.  On  the  part  of  any  people  centuries  of 
the  lack  of  training  in  political  education  and  of  practice  in 
popular  and  representative  government  cannot  be  corrected 
in  the  experience  of  a  twelve-months.  It  is  easy  to  point 
out  the  defects  and  vices  of  the  Spanish  nature  and  their 
inheritance  and  modifications  in  the  Cuban  character.  No 
great  exertion  of  the  intellect  is  required  to  sneer  at  racial 
weaknesses  which  are  patent  and  which  proclaim  themselves. 
But  human  progress  is  not  along  these  lines.  It  is  advanced 
by  appealing  to  the  virtues,  not  by  exploiting  the  vices  of  a 
people.  In  their  present  experiment,  to  realize  their  aspira- 
tions there  should  be  stretched  out  to  the  Cubans  not  the 
strong  hand,  but  the  helping  hand,  of  the  United  States. 

Following  the  topic  assigned  to  me,  I  have  sought  to  con- 
fine myself  closely  to  the  natives  of  Spanish  blood  and  their 
influence  in  the  future  of  the  two  West  India  Islands  with 
which  the  United  States  is  most  intimately  concerned.  I 
would  not  be  understood  as  ignoring  the  effect  of  immigra- 
tion from  this  country,  for  there  will  be  an  immigration  and 
a  commingling  of  the  two  peoples.     Cuba  will  be  benefited 


178  Annals  of  the;  American  Academy 

by  the  presence  and  the  example  of  many  Americans  who 
will  settle  in  the  Island.  Yet  for  years,  the  bulk  of  the 
arrivals,  following  the  course  which  is  indicated,  will  be 
from  Spain.  This  will  reinforce  the  existing  two-thirds  of 
the  population  which  is  of  Spanish  stock.  It  means  a  rein- 
forcement of  the  Castilian  language,  of  Spanish  traditions, 
religious  faith,  customs,  manners,  habits  of  thinking  and 
methods  of  living.  In  other  words  it  renews  and  refreshes 
the  Spanish  strain  among  the  native  Cubans.  In  all  our 
dealings  with  the  Cuban  people  this  must  be  kept  in  mind. 

"The  luxuriant  zone  of  the  tropics,"  says  Humboldt, 
' '  offers  the  strongest  resistance  to  changes  in  the  natural 
distribution  of  vegetable  forms."  The  analogy  holds  in 
political  and  social  institutions.  Tenacious  of  everything 
that  has  been  his,  the  Spaniard  transplanted  to  the  tropics 
acquires  greater  resistance.  Pushed,  he  becomes  stubborn 
and  unyielding.  Persuaded,  he  may  be  led  if  too  great 
violence  is  not  done  to  his  convictions.  To  lead  and  guide, 
not  to  drive,  is  the  American  solution  of  the  race  problems 
in  the  West  Indies. 


REPORT  OF  THE  ACADEMY 
COMMITTEE   ON    MEETINGS 


(179) 


Report  of  the  Academy  Committee  on  Meetings. 

FIFTH  ANNUAL  MEETING 

OF   TH3 

American  Academy  of   Political  and 
Social  Science. 

Philadelphia,  April  12  and  ij,  ipoi. 


"AMERICA'S  RACK  PROBLEMS." 

The  Fifth  Annual  Meeting  proved  to  be  the  best  attended 
and  most  successful  the  Academy  has  yet  held.  The  time- 
liness of  the  topics  discussed  and  the  exceptionally  even  and 
high  standard  of  excellence  of  the  papers  presented  through- 
out the  meeting  called  forth  many  words  of  praise  from 
those  present,  and  were  reflected  in  the  newspaper  comments 
upon  the  various  sessions. 

The  meeting  was  called  to  order  by  the  President,  in  the 
Assembly  Room  of  the  Manufacturers'  Club,  on  Friday 
afternoon,  at  3  o'clock.  Dr.  Talcott  Williams,  of  Philadel- 
phia, was  introduced  as  the  presiding  officer.  He  spoke 
briefly  upon  the  topic  of  the  session,  namely,  The  Races  of  the 
Pacific,  and  upon  the  particular  qualifications  of  the  speakers 
announced  on  the  program.  He  then  introduced  Dr.  Titus 
Munson  Coan,  of  New  York  City,  who  gave  an  address  upon 
the  Natives  of  Hawaii.  Dr.  Coan  is  the  son  of  a  missionary 
to  Hawaii,  and  was  himself  born  on  the  island  and  resided 
there  for  over  nineteen  years.  He  spoke  most  entertainingly 
of  the  personal  impressions  of  a  native-born,  of  the  char- 
acteristics of  the  people  and  of  their  habits  and  customs. 
He  dwelt  at  some  length  upon  the  Polynesian  checks  to  popu- 
lation practiced  in  the  Hawaiian  Islands  as  in  other  sections 
of  Polynesia. 

(1S1) 


1 82  Annals  of  the  American  Academy 

Following  Dr.  Coan  the  Rev.  Charles  C.  Pierce,  D.  D., 
United  States  Army  Chaplain,  now  stationed  at  Fort  Myer, 
Virginia,  who  has  recently  returned  from  over  two  years  of 
service  in  the  Philippines,  spoke  upon  the  Tagals,  giving  a 
very  vivid  picture  ot  these  people  in  their  relation  to  the 
other  tribes  in  the  Philippine  Islands.  He  emphasized 
especially  the  fact  that  the  Tagal  is  an  alien  in  the  Philip- 
pines and  that  his  influence  and  capabilities  are  much  over- 
rated. One  incident  of  this  session  which  is  deserving  of 
mention,  occurred  in  the  discussion  following  these  papers 
when  Rev.  Dr.  Charles  Colman,  of  Philadelphia,  bore  wit- 
ness to  the  efficiency  of  Chaplain  Pierce's  services  in  the 
Philippines.  Dr.  Colman  said  that  he  had  two  sons  in  the 
war,  of  whom  one  died  in  Cuba  while  the  other  returned 
from  the  Philippine  Islands  a  physical  wreck.  Speaking  of 
the  latter  he  said,  ' '  In  those  long  and  weary  days  which 
followed  his  home-coming,  he  often  talked  with  me  of  the 
brave  deeds  of  his  companions  in  the  tropical  campaign  and 
of  his  experiences  in  the  hospital  after  he  was  stricken  with 
disease.  But,  sir,  there  was  one  man  about  whom  he  fre- 
quently spoke — one  whom  he  held  in  the  highest  regard  and 
esteem.  He  has  told  me  of  his  unfaltering  courage  and  of  his 
unshaken  faith,  of  the  comfort  which  he  brought  and  of  the 
cheering  words  he  spoke  to  the  sick  and  lonely,  of  his  loving 
ministrations  to  the  dying  and  of  the  patience  and  persist- 
ence with  which  he  attended  the  affairs  of  the  dead;  no 
soldier  passed  on  his  way  from  those  foreign  shores  to  await 
the  final  reveille  whose  body  was  not  taken  in  charge  by 
this  all-powerful  man,  and  there  is  no  case  on  record  of  an 
unidentified  body  in  the  province  of  his  duties."  Dr. 
Colman  further  declared  that  he  did  not  know  Dr.  Pierce, 
but  was  very  glad  to  have  this  opportunity  of  publicly 
expressing  his  appreciation  of  the  man.  The  incident  pro- 
duced a  marked  impression  upon  the  meeting  and,  along 
with  other  expressions  of  admiration  for  Dr.  Pierce's  work, 
lent  peculiar  interest  to  what  he  had  to  say. 


Appendix  183 

A  paper  by  Rev.  Oliver  C.  Miller,  A.  M.,  Chaplain  of  the 
United  States  Army,  upon  the  Semi-Civilized  Tribes  of  the 
Philippines,  was  read  by  title,  and  is  printed  in  the  volume 
of  Proceedings.  Dr.  Miller  is  now  stationed  at  the  Presidio, 
San  Francisco. 

The  second  session  was  called  to  order  by  the  President 
of  the  Academy  at  the  New  Century  Drawing  Room,  on 
Friday  evening,  at  8  o'clock.  The  President  reviewed  the 
work  of  the  Academy  during  the  year  since  the  last  annual 
meeting,  calling  attention  to  the  large  demand  for  a  wide 
circulation  of  the  Acadenry's  publications  during  the  year, 
and  especially  of  the  volume  on  ' '  Corporations, ' '  contain- 
ing the  addresses  at  the  last  annual  meeting.  He  also 
described  the  encouraging  growth  of  the  Academy  in 
numbers  and  influence,  and  showed  how,  through  the  publi- 
cations, work  done  by  the  Academy  at  its  local  meetings, 
was  extended  throughout  the  country.  The  need  of  a  larger 
measure  of  co-operation  among  the  members  of  the  Academy, 
in  securing  the  facilities  for  making  its  work  permanent,  and 
the  peculiar  responsibility  resting  upon  an  organization  of 
this  character,  when  public  education  on  social  and  economic 
questions  is  so  imperative,  was  emphasized.  Professor 
Lindsay  then  introduced,  as  the  orator  of  the  evening, 
Professor  Edward  A.  Ross,  of  Nebraska  University,  who 
delivered  the  annual  address.  The  subject  which  Professor 
Ross  treated  ably  in  the  course  of  an  hour's  address  was 
"  The  Causes  of  Race  Superiority."  Following  the  annual 
address  an  informal  reception  was  held,  at  which  the 
members  and  their  friends  and  invited  guests  were 
given  an  opportunity  to  meet  the  speakers  of  the  annual 
meeting. 

On  Saturday  morning,  April  13,  many  of  the  out-of-town 
visitors  assembled  by  invitation  at  9.30  at  the  Museum  of 
of  Science  and  Art  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  where 
they  were  received  b)^  the  Curator,  Dr.  Stewart  Culin,  who 
personally  conducted  the  party  and  described  the  valuable 


184  Annals  op  the  American  Academy 

collections  of  the  Museum.  In  the  Assyrian  department  Dr. 
Clay,  who  is  associated  with  Professor  Hilprecht,  gave  a  very 
interesting  explanation  of  the  tablets  recently  excavated  at 
Nippur  and  constituting  the  earliest  record  of  civilization 
which  has  yet  been  found.  Another  party  gathered  at  the 
Philadelphia  Commercial  Museum  at  10.30,  where  Mr. 
Tingle,  one  of  the  officers  of  the  Museum,  was  in  waiting. 
After  a  brief  address  on  the  consular  service  of  the  United 
States,  he  conducted  the  party  through  the  Museum  and 
explained  the  large  and  valuable  collections  of  industrial 
products  from  all  over  the  world,  which  the  Museum  has 
collected. 

On  both  days  a  large  number  of  members  and  guests 
gathered  for  luncheon  at  the  Manufacturers'  Club,  which 
extended  to  the  Academy  throughout  the  meeting  the  free- 
dom of  its  club  house,  as  did  also  the  Art  Club  of  Philadel- 
phia and  other  social  organizations. 

The  third  session  was  called  to  order  at  3  o'clock  on 
Saturday  afternoon,  and  Colonel  Hilary  A.  Herbert,  of 
Alabama,  ex-Secretary  of  the  Navy,  was  introduced  as  the 
presiding  officer,  the  topic  of  the  session  being  ' '  The  Race 
Problem  at  the  South."  Colonel  Herbert  gave  an  eloquent 
address  presenting  a  typical  Southern  white  man's  view  of 
the  relations  of  the  whites  to  the  negroes.  He  then  intro- 
duced President  George  T.  Winston,  of  the  North  Carolina 
College  of  Agriculture  and  Mechanic  Arts,  who  addressed 
the  meeting  on  the  same  topic.  During  the  course  of  his 
remarks  President  Winston  pictured  the  conditions  existing 
before  the  war,  and  claimed  that  the  social  relations  between 
whites  and  negroes  at  that  time  were  far  superior  to  those  at 
present,  and  that  of  late  the  races  had  been  drifting  apart 
rather  than  coming  together. 

The  third  and  last  address  at  this  session  was  given  by 
Professor  W.  K.  Burghardt  DuBois,  of  Atlanta  University, 
who  analyzed  with  peculiar  calmness  and  ability  the 
' '  Relation  of  the  Negroes  to  the  Whites. ' '     By  many  present 


Appendix  185 

this  address  was  regarded  as  the  feature  of  the  whole 
program.  A  paper  by  President  Booker  T.  Washington,  of 
Tuskegee,  upon  the  same  topic,  was  read  by  title. 

A  peculiar  interest  centered  in  the  closing  session,  at  which 
Senator  Orville  H.  Piatt,  of  Connecticut,  chairman  of  the 
Senate  Committee  on  Relations  with  Cuba,  and  author  of 
the  Piatt  amendment  which  was  then  under  discussion  in  the 
Cuban  Constitutional  Convention — reports  of  which  seemed 
to  indicate  that  it  had  been  rejected — addressed  the  Academy 
on  "  Our  Relations  to  the  People  of  Cuba  and  Porto  Rico." 
Also  at  this  session  Mr.  Charles  M.  Pepper,  author  and 
journalist,  who  has  recently  been  appointed  as  one  of  the 
delegates  of  the  United  States  government  to  the  Pan-Amer- 
ican Congress  which  will  assemble  in  the  city  of  Mexico  in 
October,  gave  an  address  on  ' '  The  Spanish  Population  of 
Cuba  and  Porto  Rico."  Both  of  these  addresses  were  list- 
ened to  by  a  large  and  attentive  audience.  At  the  conclusion 
of  the  meeting,  on  Saturday  evening,  the  Manufacturers' 
Club  gave  a  reception  to  the  speakers  at  the  annual  meeting 
and  other  invited  guests,  among  whom  were  many  of  the 
members  of  the  Academy. 

The  Committee  desires  to  take  this  opportunity  to  express 
its  thanks,  as  well  as  those  of  the  officers  and  members  of 
the  Academy,  to  the  Provost  and  authorities  of  the  Univer- 
sity of  Pennsylvania,  to  the  President  and  Directors  of  the 
Manufacturers'  Club,  to  the  Director  and  Board  of  Trustees 
of  the  Philadelphia  Commercial  Museums,  to  the  Union 
League,  University  and  Art  Clubs,  and  to  many  individuals 
who  cannot  here  be  mentioned  by  name  who  co-operated 
with  the  Committee  in  extending  hospitality  to  the  speakers 
and  visiting  members  of  the  Academy  on  the  occasion  of 
the  Annual  Meeting.  The  Manufacturers'  Club,  as  on 
previous  occasions,  gave  us  the  use  of  its  Assembly  Room 
and  practically  of  its  Club  House  during  the  two  days  of 
our  sessions. 

The  expenses  of  the  meeting  were   met  in    part   by   an 


1 86  Annaes  of  the  American  Academy 

appropriation  from  the  treasury  of  the  Academy  and  in  part 
by  a  special  fund,  to  which  leading  citizens,  interested  in 
the  educational  purpose  of  the  meeting  and  recognizing  its 
importance,  contributed. 

As  a  matter  of  record  the  Committee  desires  in  conclusion 
to  note  the  other  scientific  sessions  of  the  Academy  held 
during  the  interval  between  the  Fourth  and  Fifth  Annual 
Meetings,  as  follows : 

November   20,    1900,  Sixty-Seventh   Scientific   Ses- 
sion. 

Stibject. — "  The  Causes  of  the  Unpopularity  of  the  For- 
eigner in  China." 

Addresses  by — The  Chinese  Minister,  His  Excellency  Wu 
Ting-fang,  Washington,  D.  C;  Rev.  William  A.  P.  Martin, 
D.  D. ,  LE.  D.,  President  of  the  Imperial  University  of  Pekin, 
and  the  Honorable  George  F.  Seward,  Ex-Minister  to  China. 

December  18,  1900,  Sixty-eighth  Scientific  Session. 

Stibject.—"  The  Problem  of  the  Tropics." 

Addresses  by — Professor  John  H.  Finley,  Princeton  Univer- 
sity; Honorable  Frederico  Degetau,  Commissioner  from 
Porto  Rico  to  the  United  States,  and  General  Roy  Stone, 
member  of  General  Miles'  Staff  in  Porto  Rico. 

January  15,  1901,  Sixty-ninth  Scientific  Session. 

Subject. — "Recent  Tendencies  in  Free  Political  Institu- 
tions. ' ' 

Addresses  by — Honorable  J.  E.  M.  Curry,  EE.  D.,  Ex- 
Minister  to  Spain  and  General  Secretary  of  the  Peabody 
and  Slater  Educational  Funds,  on  ' '  Centralization  in  Gov- 
ernment and  the  Causes  of  the  Present  Decay  in  Eocal 
Government  and  Some  of  Its  Remedies  ;"  Dr.  Albert  Shaw, 
Editor  of  the  Review  of  Reviews,  and  Dr.  James  T.  Young, 
University  of  Pennsylvania, 


Appendix  187 

February  19,  1901,  Seventieth  Scientific  Session. 

Subject.—'1  The  Isthmian  Canal." 

Addresses  by — Professor  Emory  R.  Johnson,  University  of 
Pennsylvania,  on  "The  Political  and  Economic  Aspects  of 
the  Isthmian  Canal,''  and  Colonel  Peter  C.  Hains,  Corps  of 
Engineers,  U.  S.  A.,  on  "  The  Military  Value  of  the  Canal." 

Finally,  the  Committee  on  Meetings  takes  pleasure  in 
expressing  its  gratitude  to  the  speakers  who  have  taken  part 
in  the  various  meetings  of  the  year  and  who  have  given  us 
generously  of  their  time  and  service,  without  other  compen- 
sation than  the  sense  of  satisfaction  which  comes  from 
having  performed  a  public  duty  and  having  had  a  part  in 
the  educational  work  which  the  Academy  is  doing. 

The  social  features  of  our  meetings  have  added  much  to 
their  pleasure  and  profit  and  the  Committee  begs  to  thank 
the  following  ladies  who  have  served  upon  one  or  other 
of  the  Reception  Commitees  during  the  year:  Mrs.  Charles 
Custis  Harrison  (chairman).  Mrs.  DeForest  Willard  (vice- 
chairman),  Mrs.  Leverett  Bradley,  Mrs.  John  H.  Converse, 
Mrs.  Stephen  W.  Dana,  Mrs.  Theodore  N.  Ely,  Mrs. 
Adam  H.  Fetterolf,  Mrs.  Samuel  McCune  Lindsay,  Mrs. 
Edward  M.  Paxson,  Mrs.  Charles  Roberts,  Mrs.  Henry 
Rogers  Seager,  Mrs.  Talcott  Williams,  Mrs.  Owen  Wister, 
Mrs.  Clinton  Rogers  Woodruff. 

Respectfully  submitted, 

Samuee  McCune  Lindsay, 

Chairman. 

Simon  N.  Patten, 

-r-    _   '  >  Committee  071  Meetings. 

Henry  R.  Seager, 

Clinton  Rogers  Woodruff, 


